End of Winter Camp, But not of Winter

So my two weeks of teaching winter camp are now over. I got to teach along with my friends Lizelle, Jaime, and Mike for two weeks and it was a blast. It was like a four hour work day, and I even got a bonus for helping organize the camp (sweet!).

The camp was set up into four groups, each foreign teacher taking on a question and creating two weeks worth of lessons around those question. Who, Why, How, and What were the class categories. Mine was Who, and I focused on post-modern humanitarians that included Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Shakira, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr, J.K. Rowling, the 14th Dalai Lama, Oprah Winfrey, and Princess Diana. At the end of the two weeks, the students had to present who they thought were the best male and f

emale humanitarians from what they learned. It was great seeing that the children all picked different ones and for different reasons and therefore letting me know that I had selected a good and diverse group of people for them to study about.

The winter camp commenced with winners from each one of the classes presenting their speeches, winning prizes, and a big dinner in Songtan. By the way, my new favorite dish: spicy chicken bulgogi. I had a lot of fun and now I get to enjoy a nice break during the Lunar New Year, which is followed by another break. Might spend a day or two in Seoul to take in the Lunar New Year festivals over there. Also, I'm dogsitting for my coteacher Mr.Lee in Osan for three days, so I think it'll be fun to get to learn about that part of Korea.

Still cold, but meh, what are you going to do?

Here's a video of one of the winners in Mike's class. It's a magic trick, enjoy!

Frozen Pipes Batman Pt. 3

Frozen Pipes Batman Pt. 2

So after 48 hours with no running water, taking showers at my friend's place, and a sore throat later I am happy to report everything is fully functional here in Oscar's place.

Frozen Pipes Batman!!! You won't see that in LA

The good, the bad, and the ugly...

Tradition dictates I start with the good.

Here's the good. I went to LA for the holidays and it was gloriously awesome! I had a blast seeing family and friends. I got there Christmas Eve, and after a long wait to get my baggage from the carousel, I made it into the car and straight home sweet home. I have NyQuil to thank for putting me to sleep on the plane so that I would be restful and not at all jet-lagged when I got home. Seeing my family was great, eating tamales, drinking ponche, exchanging gifts...the whole nine yards. I even missed the gargantuan Santa my mom has started to put out in the front yard (which takes up the entire front yard, a tradition she began last year).

After the Christmas festivities came to a close it was straight to business, that is seeing all my friends and other relatives whom I hadn't seen in the last seven months. Yaya thought of a great place for our group of friends to have our holiday dinner, the San Antonio Winery, which I highly recommend.

The next stop for a big friend gathering was Ra sushi, always a favorite of mine. before then my twin Etna and Pat treated me to lunch at Eatalian, a hidden treasure in Gardena, reminiscent of a New York style Italian eatery (hence the name).

Then off to Ra in Torrance as planned!

Afterwards we visited our friend Nancy's new apartment in Long Beach.

The next day was about visiting Lisette and Humberto's new apartment and congratulating her on being prego. Lunch at Red Robin like old CSUDH times was in order.

As you have noticed by now, a major theme of my time here has been food, so let's continue on this culinary path. Next stop was dinner with Heidi and Lizzy, who was also in town from Washington DC. Last time I saw them, Heidi took us to Boiling Crab, a good restaurant, but a place Lizzy and I refused to eat the shrimp at because they still had their heads and those antennae were going all over the place. So this time we compromised for a place with headless shrimp and the cheese biscuit capital of the world: Red Lobster!

Next day was Pho with Phoebe and Ruben! Granted Phoebes and I had already had are very long overdue multiple Starbucks/Barnes visits prior to this dinner.

Next stop was Vegas where I spent time with my family and my Victorville family. I must say that Vegas was hella cold. The cold was comparable to Korea when I had left it. It was definitely too cold to walk up and down the Strip. So in general it wasn't the most fun I've had in Vegas as I was happiest at the warm hotel, but the fireworks at midnight were definitely a sight to see.

Coming to LA my priority was to pick my degree from LBSU and then spend some time my friends the Gonzaleseseseses. A much needed Slurpee (which the 7-Elevens in SK lack) was in order.

I then spent the next day visiting CSUDH, friends from the campus then having lunch with my Sylvan friends Katers and Theresa.

Speaking of Sylvan peeps, the next day I got to go to Sylvan and visit with the staff and have one of my missed favorites, Chipotle! Thanks everyone at Sylvan for making my visit a fun one!

My last 48 hours consisted of having dinner with my sis, niece, and cousin Aura at Red Robin once again, then a goodbye dinner with some friends. The goodbye dinner was an awesome potluck consisting of a Pictionary game and playing Jenga in the dark!

Then my sister drove me to LAX the next morning where I ran into Mel and Steve, who were boarding at the gate next to mine, and headed my butt over to China then back to SK.

I had a great time with everyone and it made me appreciate the great people I have around me, even when I'm not around. These past seven months flew by, and with five more to go until my next visit, I'm sure those will fly by as well. Thanks for making those two weeks very happy ones.

Eggnog lattes and Red Bulls without having to go to the base, you will be missed as well.

On a creative note I must say that posting all these pics on Blogger was quite an effort. So much so that the whole time I was posting pics on this entry I was hoping I had HTML'd the whole thing, and that's saying a lot.

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Now for the bad....

The weather here in SK is COLD! Too cold to even go out. I mean, I was expecting cold, but being in LA made me forget all of the tolerance I had learned in SK for chilly weather. Yep, completely out the window. Yes it is cold here.

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Now for the ugly...

My pipes froze! Yes, they froze! I have no running water. Not until tonight....supposedly when the "fireman" comes to fix it. Why is fireman in quotes? Because this person is considered someone who melts the ice from pipes. I've gone a little over 24 hours with no running water and going over to my friend/coworker's apartment to shower is not ideal for me. It makes me feel like I'm a native who has no running water and has to go across the vast planes to shower at my fellow villager's high-tech hut with these new fandangled inventions like working faucets. This better get fixed, and fast!

I'll end this on a positive note. Winter camp classes are going great. And working along Lizelle, Mike, and Jaime makes it so much better. I will give my school kudos for allowing me to bring over teacher friends of mine over the break to run our program.

I'll also say that I'm still on the fence about my decision to renew here in Korea, I'm leaning more towards one way now that I have a lot of new information, but alas, we shall still see.