Jan 2009 - Snowstorm

We got about a foot of snow today. This was the biggest snowstorm in recent history in Korea. One of the Korean teachers said she had never seen this much snow. I don't think they have any snowplows, so the traffic really suffers when snow hits. Many store owners don't even have snow shovels. They use large pieces of cardboard, wood, plastic...whatever is available. Oh and no such thing as a snow day.

New Year - New Job

Today, I started 2010 at work with a new position teaching in the After School Program in a public school. It is a satellite program of Incheon English Village. I travel by subway about 1hr each way with about a 15 min walk on each end. That in itself is not so bad, but we did have a major snowstorm hit this morning which made the walk less than pleasureable. Anyway, I think I'm going to love the position. I have my own classroom! It's small, but it's mine!! I met about half of the kids today and will meet the rest tomorrow.

The Holiday Season in Korea

We worked Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Years Eve/Day. I don't think I've ever work on either of those days in my entire life. It certainly made for a strange, sort of surreal holiday. The calendar told me it was the holidays, but it really didn't feel like it. The great news is that we have such a great “community” of foreign teachers that got together for several small celebrations. It was a lot of fun, just different. One of the highlights of the season was going to see The Nutcracker on Christmas Eve. It was beautiful...exceeded my expectations. Koreans celebrate Chuseok (their “Thanksgiving-type” holiday) in late September. Although there are a lot of Christians in Korea, the Christmas holiday is more of a commercial one. The New Year is celebrated here, but the BIG new year celebration is Lunar New Year, which this year is in mid-February, this year bringing in the 2010, the year of the White Tiger. Now THAT will be a HUGE celebration here.