Surprise!

I was sent this video by our LASW Guide Dog Leader Pat and I thought she was joking when she asked if you could find me in the video. When I watched I found out she wasn't kidding! It was an amazing experience to be able to join Mandy on this day and have an opportunity to coach blind kids with Riley and Mandy. Thanks so much to Mandy and LASW for bringing me to this event and giving me the opportunity to experience such a wonderful organization! I hope to make it back to coach again someday :)

Video for Junior Blind Olympics....enjoy :)

A little play time too...

Going to a conference on a tropical island (even if it is monsoon season) is difficult because all you want to do is play...but the conference was engaging so we stuck to the plan. However, we did go a day early and get a little play time. Brie even convinced 4 of us to try scuba diving. I LOVED it! I want to get certified this summer (Mandy you in?) The highlight was seeing a HUGE turtle. He was an amazing creature and it was so cool to be so close!

The other amazing aspect of tropical islands is the sunset over the sea. I took WAY too many photos of this but sat on the beach soaking it up and thinking of Cali. Hope you all appreciate the amazing sunsets you have there :)

Reunion

Getting to attend a great conference like EARCOS was an experience in itself but being able to run into former co-teachers is a whole other! It was great to see Jeff who was also attending the conference from his school in Vietnam. He was with one other co-worker and we got to meet up a few of the nights for dinner or drinks and chat. Marla on the other hand was a presenter! I went to her presentation on "Project Based Learning" which was amazing. I had another colleague who went to the same presentation from her later in the week and was so excited to implement it intermediately like me! It was great to see two amazing teachers doing so well. And to have left California for different places around the world and meet up in a small island like Borneo :)

Catching up

This blog goes ignored for quite a while. Sorry for that! Sometimes I can't believe I can be so busy! I try to keep in contact with people at home but the best I can do is two quick skype calls to Mom and dad and then to Manda on Sunday mornings before church. My apologies to all those I have not been able to email lately. I am working on it I promise. Okay, now for an update on Korea life.

Since returning from Christmas lots has happened. We have had a ton of days off which has been a big difference from the stint before Christmas when I worked from Sept. to Dec. without any days off. We celebrated Korean New Year and we got to do a PD on teaching the IB PYP. Admissions season came and went. I was made "director of elementary admissions" although I'm not sure how much that title holds haha. I did kindergarten admissions. It was different from doing it in PV since I was working with ESL children. It made the experience very interesting. There were many similarities and many differences.

We had valentines day and the 100th day of school. I tried running the 100th day similar to the one run at Chadwick. It was hard to prepare without Marla, Katy and Lauren there to help. I did pull it off and the parents loved it (I think) but we had so many activities that the school had planned in the afternoon that we could only hold the 100th day centers in the morning...the kids didn't get to do much. Live and learn. Now I know for next year to extend it. I forgot the explanation to the parents (who are also ESL) would take longer. They were great though, and had fun joining in with their kids.

We have the first of March off for another Korean holiday and I finally got to go hiking with a friend. Unfortunately it snowed that morning so we had to do one of the smaller mountains so it was more of a snow walk than a hike, but at least it is a start!

Of course the most recent excitement was my cousin visiting. It was a piece of home in Korea. Unfortunately she began and ended her trip throwing up but the middle part was really great! We went all over Seoul, Incheon, and Songdo. I'm not sure who was more tired my jet-lagged cousin or me! It was great, we did sight seeing and of course tons of shopping. Even though she does not eat spicy food she got a good taste of a variety of Korean food including eating Poop. haha.

I just finished report cards, I leave for EARCOS in Kota Kinabalu on Tuesday night. I will be there five days and even get to see Jeff Ravine who used to teach at Chadwick in PV. I return late Sunday night and wake up to Parent/teacher conferences on Monday and Tuesday. Then I have about two weeks of teaching before mom and dad arrive and we head off to Bali on spring break.

So basically I will continue to be busy haha!

Here is the update so far. Hope everyone is doing well!

(as a side note, no we did not feel the earthquake and at the moment the wind is head the other direction so we are not in danger of radiation stuff yet either. The news is watching it closely of course as is our school. Stay safe!)

MAIL!!!

A wonderful surprise arrived this week from
California. Miss Pufferfish was brought back by a beautiful necklace donning a purple fish. With it a witty letter stating "Thing of us when you wear your fish, Close your eyes and make a wish.

I have not taken it off since I got it and I have gotten many compliments on it. Thank you so much Levy family. You are too kind! I would have been happy with just the letter but the necklace was awesome!!

Grrr

Along with the coffee the winter accessories must be animal themed and cute.

Doesn't hurt that this kid is cute no matter what he does :)

cute coffee?

In Korea we don't just do coffee..we have to make it cute. We all know I would never drink coffee if it wasn't cute!

Another interesting thing to ingest ...

So my cousin Betsey made it to Korea for a week to visit. It was so much fun and I have so many hilarious memories from her being here. I am happy to finally share my life here in Korea with someone from home. I am so honored she wanted to come visit me! I am far away and expensive to see. Thanks Bets!

One of our many adventures was to Insadong. One thing they sell there for consumption is this bread with red beans inside. It is delicious but the really awesome part is it is made to look like poop.

From checking with a friend this stems from war time when children used to have diseases and these inspectors used to have to check their poop for...well I don't know! The picture on the bag shows you how to check the poop and in the bottom right corner is a place for the inspectors to initial. Gotta love Korean humor!

At least it was delicious :)

Visitors!

So the latest and greatest news is that my cousin Betsey arrives tomorrow. This will be my first visitor (not counting Jessica Smith who stopped by for about 4 hours on her way from Thailand!) I am so excited for her to visit. YAY!

새해 복 많이 받으세요!

EARCOS

I am very lucky that we have the opportunity to go to the EARCOS conference in Borneo. I just took the time to look at where the conference is being held.

http://www.suteraharbour.com/v3/

Bummer :) :)

My very own 한복!!!

Lunar New Year is next week. We are celebrated with our class tomorrow. The students are coming to school in their traditional dress called a 한복 (pronounced Han-boke). They are beautiful with bright colors and am very excited to see all my kids in them.

Well to my surprise, one of the parents presented Mark and I with our very own Hanbok's to wear tomorrow too. The students are going to teach us to bow properly (there is a certain way to do it to respect your elders) and we are going to walk through the school bowing for the other classes.

Don't worry, pictures of me in it are soon to follow...if I can figure out how to put it on! ^^

No words...

I received an unexpected email today from a teacher at Chadwick PV. I was caught completely off guard and was overwhelmed when reading it. I could never imagine that after 6 months away the students at Chadwick would remember me let alone still talk about me. I feel so loved and so lucky that I had the chance to be in these kids lives! I...for once in my life...was speechless! Here is the email:

Hi Ginger,

Hope you had a wonderful Winter Break and are settling back into your routine in Songdo!

Just had to share this with you -- 3 students are working outside my classroom and I have the door open, so I just happened to overhear them (Jared, Gavin, and Connor) discussing their favorite teacher. Guess who's top of their list? You! You're nice on the outside and nice on the inside, I think is what they said.

Your kids miss you and look for you in each newsletter we get from Songdo. They're rather heartbroken to hear that we only get stuff from the 1st graders there, and not from your class. If it's not too difficult, could you include us in any newsletters you send? They would be DELIGHTED to hear from you and see pictures of you!

Anne Wong

Thank you SO much Anne for this email it made me feel so special! Miss you all and expect something from me soon :)

Meet Ginger

Meet Ginger II :)
(No she is not mine...I wish! She is a new addition to Manda's office in Torrance. So see, technically there is still a part of me in S. Cali! ha ha)

Reunion

Reunion Day! Today I got the opportunity to go meet my friend Erica who I have not seen since 2002. She and I went to college together and played basketball together. I also met her friend from high school named Jenn. It was so wonderful to meet up with an old friend. She is now living in Korea as well with her 2-year-old daughter and husband who is stationed in the Navy here. We had lunch, went for coffee, and then had some time to head up to the Seoul Tower. It was a great day :)

(Picture 1: Ava, Erica's daughter, and her new men ha ha Picture 2: Me, Jenn,and Erica)

So it has been snowing in Songdo. I flew back from rainy California to find Songdo covered in snow. It has been a beautiful few days to walk home. I have to say I am VERY glad I bought new boots when I was home :)

Korean Basketball

I finally got to go watch Pro Korean Basketball. It was entertaining. Let's just say the Lakers would wipe the floor with these guys haha. Mostly the same rules, I know there are one or two different but not that I could see. On the Incheon team there is one player (#11 I think) that is called the "living legend" I was not impressed. He was lazy and thought VERY highly of himself. At one point he shot and made a 3 and stood there pointing at the crowd like he was some God or something. Lame! I told my Korean friends I think the "legend" should retire, and by the end of the game they thought so too haha!
The mom in front of us handed out hard boiled eggs to the kids...I was thinking "Where are the nachos?" The mascot was an elephant which I'm not sure why...No one called them the Incheon Elephants. Not a very fierce mascot either.
Incheon was not doing well at the beginning of the game but came back to win. They seriously needed to step up their defense (pronounced De-pen when chanted at Korean games) All in all it was a lot of fun to be back in a stadium watching basketball. I am hoping to go see KCC and either Mobis or Samsung which seem to be better teams. I watched KCC barely beat Samsung last night on TV. They went into overtime and as the buzzer went off KCC chucked the ball up and it happen to go in...no double overtime...KCC won. It was great! So that is the next goal :)

Small world

So I am watching Korean basketball on TV. I jumped online to check out the rosters for the 2 teams I am watching. One team called KCC has a player on the team who is Korean but previous played on the semi Pro league in Springfield, MA right next to my parents! What a small world!! This is the team I am going to watch this Saturday in Seoul :)

PS...He just happens to be a 7'4" Korean as well... He is huge!!!!

Great Vacation

After a GREAT visit to the US I am back to work. I got to visit the family in Minnesota. It was wonderful to hang out with everyone. I loved being able to go shopping with my mom as well...although with all I bought I was not a friend of the airlines on the way back haha. I got to enjoy Grandma's cooking (which is always a bonus!) I even got to visit with Jill in the middle of our shopping spree :) We lucked out with the snow already being conveniently on the ground so no one was snowed out.

I headed to California soon after and got to see many wonderful people. I was lucky enough to stay with Mandy and her mom. Again, lucky enough to partake in Mrs. Jones' cooking :) yum! I got to hang out at Kim's house on New Years (so much fun!) And go to a puppy meeting...so many cute puppies in the group now! I enjoyed lunch with Marla at Tarranea (I had never been...great location) and we saw a gray whale!! I got to go to Disneyland...in the rain :) haha. And even got a lunch date with Emma and Michael (2 former students)

After all this amazing fun it was hard to come back! I flew from LA to Tokyo with...wait for it...NO TV! Come on Delta...that was 12 hours with no entertainment. The only TV on the plane was the one projected at the very front. ugh! About half way through the flight we noticed there was some commotion 2 rows up. There was a couple who had a sick baby. The flight attendent take the babies temp and it was 102! They stopped the movie and asked if there was a doctor on board because someone needed medical attention. We all felt so bad for this couple. There were 2 doctors that came to help and luckily we were not to far away. When we landed they asked us all to remain seated so they could get off the plane and to the ambulance that was waiting. I hope the baby is okay. I had to run from that flight to the next but got 3 seats to myself....of course that only happens on the 2 hour flight not the 12 hour one haha.

Everyone has commented that I look happier after being home. I feel that way! Thanks to all of those who drove me around, drove to visit me, went out of their way to see me, or just called to say hi while I was home. I love you all and was SO happy to see everyone. I'm sorry that I could not visit with everyone..especially in Cali but I will be back in the summer :)

Loves!