May 1st-2nd

Life in Korea is still a blast. Every time we have a good weekend we wonder if we can possibly out do it. We as a group are having so much fun together whatever it is we are doing. About a couple weeks ago we were told we were going to have a workshop with all of the foreign teachers and the Korean teachers. By workshop, most of the teachers had to perform their class the way they do it in front of all of us other teachers so we could get ideas on how to do things in our classes. It was actually very helpful for someone like me because I am NO teacher and still learning new things everyday. This workshop took place on Friday night directly after work. Once everyone went through their routines, we headed to this restaurant right next to the school in which our principal paid for. It was a Korean BBQ duck restaurant that was delicious. Once we finished dinner, we got on one of the school's school buses and drove to a resort about an hour and a half away. We were told that the resort had a theme park that we would go to on Saturday if it was not raining. If it was raining, we were going to do pottery instead. When we got to the resort, there were the six of us foreign teachers (Tate, Jillian, Daniel, Dave, myself and our new teacher Ta-Leah), and maybe 6 of the other Korean teachers and it was already close to 11:30 PM but we all stayed up and sat around a table and chatted about so many different things. It was actually something that was so good for us because a trip like that breaks the ice between the foreign teachers and Korean teachers. The next week at work, I noticed a difference in the way we interacted with one another in the workplace, so I can say it was an awesome thing for us.

We finally got to bed around 4:30 in the morning to only wake up around 8. It was little sleep but not bad because we knew we had a fun day ahead of us. It had not rained so we were heading to the theme park after breakfast. When you think a theme park, you are thinking of fun rides and roller coasters and what not. But that was not the case at this theme park. I would call it a park. Don’t get me wrong, this place was gorgeous and we had to walk up a very steep inclined hill to get to the highlight of our weekend. They had a 150 meter zip line at the top of the hill. We were able to go on the zip line two times and it was an awesome experience. I have never been on a zip line before but had always wanted to go on one. My plan was to have my camera going the whole way down the zip line because I knew it would be awesome to put on the blog but for safety reasons, they would not allow me to. So when I got to the bottom on my first run, I gave my camera to Dave to film me but that didn’t work out as well either. There are some really awesome pictures and a short video clip before I took off that will give you a view of how high up we were and how gorgeous or surroundings were. It truly was a very gorgeous piece of land that was very well kept.

After everyone went on the zip line their two turns, we walked down the hill and stopped at a foot bath (It is pretty much a hot tub for your feet) for ten minutes or so and soaked our feet. It was a little interesting but relaxing I guess. We then went to the pottery barn and were able to do pottery. I again have never done pottery and was a little excited to try it out. The man that helped us out was incredible. I am a very artistically challenged and very nervous to see what I would make. I started off making this huge bowl but could not decide what to do with it and what shape I wanted it to be in. I became extremely restless and decided that I would rather do something that meant something to me than "just a bowl". I don’t think any of you reading this will be surprised with my bowl once you see it. I won’t ruin it by telling you what it was but will let you see for yourself in the pictures. Once we finished pottery, we hopped on the bus and headed back to Dongtan for a mid-afternoon lunch and then back home to enjoy the rest of our weekend.

Lately, Jillian, Tate, Daniel and I had been talking about getting a BBQ to put on our rooftop. As we were leaving from the school after the workshop/resort trip, we asked Jade if maybe the school had an extra BBQ they would let us barrow. Sure enough, she called her dad and he said we could take one to put on top of the roof. We were so excited that we planned a BBQ party on the rooftop for Sunday and had a few people over. We barbecued lots of steak, chicken, turkey burgers, and vegetables and enjoyed our Sunday in the sun with good company and some beers. The BBQ was so much fun that we knew it was going to be something we would do very often. We have had the BBQ now for about 3 weeks and would say we have barbecued around a solid ten times. In fact, I barbecued chicken tonight by myself for dinner (5/17/09). As we are becoming more and more professional with the BBQ, we decided we needed a change up on the rooftop and we made a beer pong table that we use for beer pong obviously and other games. Our next investment is going to be a table that can stay outside at all times. It has been a blast barbecuing up there with everyone in the apartment. I see nothing but good from this BBQ and a ton more good times to come on our rooftop in Dongtan, South Korea.