So happy this day ended.

I don't really know how else to start this post other than just saying what's actually on my mind...

This day was F-ING annoying. I'm not entirely sure what started today's spiral of events, but it hasn't been fun. I was very flustered while teaching all of my classes. Not one. All. I'm not really sure what happened. I just kept stumbling over my words and forgetting things in the office. Wednesdays are also PE days for our students and I teach a yoga class at the campus rec center. Generally, the yoga room is really clean, but for some reason there were at least 10-15 dead moths and various other bugs on the floor and I, the lucky one, kept stepping on them. Keep in mind I was in the yoga room and was bare foot. Not only was I stepping on dead bugs during class, but my students were being pretty difficult. The students typically try their hardest and are quiet. Not this group. They talked the entire time and was very unmotivated to the point where they weren't even attempting the poses. I was a very ANGRY teacher. Eventually, I threatened with wall sits and they got their act together. Somewhat.

Today I also....

dropped everything I touched. EVERYTHING.

fell out of my chair, not once, but twice. Once in the office while all teachers were there to see and again in the classroom while showing my students a video.

brought carrots and cucumbers to snack on for the day. And when I opened my new 'To Go' size ranch ready to eat my snack, I realized my veggies had gone mucusy. If you've ever left veggies out during the hot humid summer you know what I'm talking about. In Korea ranch is hard to come by so I tried to save my ranch, but I was unsuccessful. Mmmm mucusy veggies and ranch, sounds wonderful.

Wait not finished. I also...

ran into a door.

and dropped the package I received today while coming up my apartment stairs. Luckily it did not break.

I'm thinking it all started this morning when my favorite magnets fell off my door and broke.

The only great thing to happen today has been receiving my package of goodies and the girl below. I'm currently stuffing thin mints down my throat as I write. Another positive of the day. Mmm thin mints!

As I was getting dressed for the day I heard death screams coming from outside. I looked to see this middle school girl running down the street because a poodle no bigger than an American football was chasing her. The owner of the dog eventually caught the dog and continued on. This girl stood motionless in the parking lot for 5 more minutes. She didn't move an inch. It was actually quite impressive.

Third great moment of the day......I just finished one row of thin mints.

Good night.

5 reasons why this week is awesome!

5. This past Wednesday was Election Day in Korea. And with any election you of course need trucks blaring loud music while parked at an intersection with a few committed citizens dancing to promote their favorite candidate. I find it highly entertaining and love this time of year. I am sad to see it go.

4. No students this week. Enough said.

3. All tickets for summer vacation have been booked! After a month contemplating whether or not to travel to Taiwan, I made my decision and bought my ticket yesterday. I'm so excited for summer vacation and can hardly wait. I'm sure I'm annoying others because I'm constantly talking about my brother and our good friend coming to Korea and then us traveling to Tokyo! Gustavo, buy your ticket already!

Counting down the days for Taiwan, brothers/Gustavos arrival and Tokyo!

2. Attended an apartment grill out, or as the South African's say, Braai. I made s'mores and it was amazing.

1. After living in Korea for three years I was finally able to successfully order pizza and have it delivered to my apartment!

Distractions

It's been two months and I'm still missing these people like crazy! When living abroad far from family, old friends and a familiar culture you start to rely on friends in the same country as yourself for support and comfort. They essentially become your family. And for the past two years I've been lucky enough to have these wonderful people in my life and apart of my family here in Korea. Not only have I had to deal with my support system leaving, but I've also been extremely homesick. I've been in Korea for a little over two consecutive years and when I sit and think about how long I've been away from the states....I first hold back my tears and then literally shake my head.


I haven't seen my parents, siblings and even nieces and nephews for two entire years. I've been so homesick to the point where it's actually quite embarrassing. Now before you say, "Well, why didn't you come home Angel?!" I wanted to stay a fourth year and unfortunately my new teaching position started soon after my last contract ended. So basically, not enough time.

I'm better now, but there was a good week or two where it was pretty bad. I needed a few groceries and walked to the nearest market and I just started crying. Out of the blue, I just started sobbing. I couldn't stop myself. I just kept crying. I also found myself crying while at work. Not a pretty sight, especially when I was starting a new position and needed to make a good first impression. Luckily no one ever saw me...I don't think.

I'm settled into my new apartment and my homesickness has lessened. I've also been pretty busy at work so I have things to keep my mind preoccupied. My brother is coming to visit in August/September, which I'm super excited about! I've also had a lot of distractions so things are starting to look up.

A friend from home came to visit.

Friends from Seoul and Jeonju came to see the Cherry Blossoms.

Went to Yeongdeok for a day.

And to celebrate Children's Day/Cinco de Mayo and Buddha's Birthday I, along with friends, road tripped to Mokpo.

Goodbyes Suck.

I'm currently sitting in the computer lab at my new job, Andong English Village. Today is my first day of work and with seeing new and old faces it hasn't been too scary....yet. I am extremely excited about my new position however, with a new contract comes the end to an old contract and also the transition of friends moving cities/countries. With living abroad and only having at the most year long contracts people are constantly coming and going. Yes, continuously starting new positions and seeing people come and go is the life of an expat, but it doesn't get any easier. The last two years I've befriended yet another group of friends and have formed amazing relationships with various people. And it's extremely difficult to see those people leave. In previous posts I've ranted about living in a small city-town and have literally taken the piss out of Andong because lets face it, sometimes Andong deserves it. But the only reason I've lasted this long is because of the people I've met and formed relationships with. They are the reason I've come to love the city of Andong. I wish everyone who left the best of luck in their new adventure, but do know you will be missed.

Leaving Grace Hill:

 I only had to move across the river, but it was still exhausting. Relaxing after a long day of moving boxes.

Retirement Dinner

The Korean academic school year is from March to mid February and because it's the end of the school year there are several teacher dinners to celebrate. There are also special dinners to celebrate the teachers, staff, principal and vice principal who may be retiring. When I first arrived to Andong two years ago I not only attended the retirement dinner for the principal at that time, but I was also asked to learn and perform a dance at the dinner. Two years later I was asked again and this time I did not pass up the opportunity to film this hilarious moment in time. I will be honest, when you're the one foreigner at the school you do your best to stay out of the center of attention. Enjoy this video. It's too embarrassing not to share.

Although it was a little embarrassing, I LOVE how Korea always finds a reason to sing and dance!

Pyeongchang Round 2

Another great trip! After planning this trip and the long travel to reach Pyeongchang from Andong, we finally made it. We were again unable to dog sled, but it was a beautiful and very fun trip with great people! I also loved finally being able to share proper snow with my fellow South African friends!

Skiing at High 1 Resort

Finally went skiing!! You would think since I live in Iowa and can easily travel to a ski resort I would have already gone skiing. But nope. I'm a poor girl and skiing is a rich person's sport. 

For some reason I picked up skiing quite fast. Suzanne, friend and also my personal ski instructor, taught me a few tricks and basic skills to get started. After feeling confident on the bunny hill we moved to the beginner slope. Overall I felt pretty confident; there were certain things that no matter what I did I struggled with. For example, I can't walk in ski's. I don't understand how everyone does this. It literally took ten minutes to walk 10-15 feet to get to the entrance of the gondola. While my friends watched in laughter from the entrance I would take a few steps then roll back. Take a few steps then roll back...FOR TEN MINUTES! Well, it was probably more like 3, but it felt like an eternity. I also struggled with getting onto the gondola. Actually sitting and getting onto the lift was ok, but getting onto the rolly thing to position yourself to sit on the lift for me was very difficult. At one point I dropped one of my ski sticks when getting on the lift and one of the workers had to run after the lift in order to hand the stick over; getting onto the lift was always a disaster. Despite my troubles with the ski lift, walking in ski's and the fact that it was raining, dark and cold it was a blast! And I also left without any injuries....kind of.

Story: The rain really started to pick up and it was getting fairly cold. We decided since we've only skied from the halfway mark of the slope for the last run we would ski from the very top. I personally was nervous. For being my first time I realized I have pretty good balance while on skies, but I still have difficulty turning. Nonetheless I thought, Why not? Let's do this! Sitting in the ski lift rain soaking our jackets and ski gear we sat and took in the view. At the top I watched my friends ski down with little to no hesitation. I, on the other hand waited a bit and then slowly took off. At first things were ok. Stopping every ten minutes or so to not only catch my breath but to also regain control. About fifteen minutes from initially starting I found myself having issues turning left. My body just wanted to go right. No matter what I did I Kept. Going. Right. As I'm slowly skiing down the mountain I pass two young girls. One sitting about ten or eleven years old and the other standing next to her about eight. As I pass I notice once again my body is veering right. Initially I think pizza slice pizza slice. But I'm not stopping or changing directions. PIZZA SLICE ANGEL. PIZZA SLICE! I'm still not stopping or changing directions. After a few seconds I realize I'm not going to stop and I'm heading straight for the side of the mountain which is a drop off. Don't worry. The cliff was blocked using a plastic barricade. So as you can imagine, very safe. I start to panic and decide I'm just going to slow down and run into the plastic fence crossing my fingers it doesn't break and I don't fly off the cliff. 

I crash. Fighting with the fence I try to keep my balance and somehow end up in a straddle split holding the fence for dear life. Fortunately the fence did not break and I'm for the most part safe. But I'm stuck in a split! Not being flexible in that way I continue to panic. I bend my knee to get my ski closer to take it off, but it wasn't working. Plus every time I took one hand off the fence to attempt taking off a ski I felt more pressure in my knees and for someone with knee issues, this is not good! I started screaming. HELP HELP. YOGI (HERE) YOGI (HERE).  As you can imagine no one stopped. Everyone continued down the slop. Still in my straddle split and clenching the fence I yell at the two little girls I just passed. The girl standing replies, "No" and points to the girl sitting. I continue to say, please help me in both English and Korean. With consent from the girl sitting the 8 year old skies down to help. As she gets closer I realize she's probably around 6 years old. I ask her to unhook my ski, but being so little she struggles. Using easy English and instructions I tell her to sit down and to push the lever down using her body weight. As she attempts this I'm yelling, "You can do it!" "Fighting." After a few attempts she finally gets my ski unhooked. I regain my balance and take off the other ski. As much as I wanted to hug her I thought I may scare her. I help her to her feet and give her a high five instead. After walking up to help the older girl stand she then skies down to meet the younger girl and I watch both girls turn, wave and yell, "thank-you!" They continue down the hill while I stand on the side of the slope giving myself a few minutes to grasp what just happened.

I think I'll stick to skiing the half slope.

Ice Skating & Five Random Confessions

Myself and a few friends went ice skating this past weekend. Between my anxiety of falling and breaking a bone to hot chocolate and screaming children bundled head to toe in winter wear, it was a lot of fun!


As you can see, I'm holding on for dear life. Hopefully going back this weekend!

Five Random Confessions
Technically this was going to be something fun added to my posts if I happened to update my blog on Fridays. But who was I kidding?! My updates are very sporadic and since I still want to keep this new part of my blog, I've decided to change it from Five Friday Confessions to Five Random Confessions. Hope you enjoy!

1. I've been on vacation/desk warming (which basically is still vacation, but I must show my face at work for a few hours a day) since December 27th and the only thing I've accomplished on my "To Do" list is eat everything in sight.

2. Sometimes I forget how old I currently am/turning on Friday. I often find myself using a calculator to make sure. Yep, I'm really 27 turning 28.

3. Told myself I would yoga a few times a week during vacation.

Times completed: 0

Times attempted: 0

4. I think coffee is disgusting.

5. I've always loved orange juice and the flavor of fresh oranges/tangerines. But have had issues eating the orange itself. As a child and well into my early 20's I would chew the orange and suck all of the delicious flavor out. Once the flavor was gone I would spit the remnants of my orange out and toss all evidence of this weird behavior into the trash. If you're thinking "texture issue" you're wrong. I ate/currently eat pudding, bananas, oatmeal and anything else that is categorized in the weird texture group. I had an issue with the gross stringy parts of the orange. No matter how much you chewed there would still be long strings of bitterness left. And you are expected to swallow this?! No. Not happening. My dad found this dirty wasteful habit of mine out when I was in high school.

Story: Picture me and my dad (a large 6' something" tall black man) at the kitchen table with nothing on the table but a paper towel in front of me ready for my waste and the large bag of oranges in the middle of the table. 

me - Mouth full of oranges. Chewing then spitting out onto the paper towel. Then replacing that with another piece of orange.

dad - "What are you doing?"

me - "I don't like the strings. They're gross."

dad - "What do you mean?"

I explain while dad peels an orange for himself and watches me in my orange eating process. Chew, suck, spit, replace. Chew, suck, spit, replace until I'm finished. Since the juice from one just wasn't enough to satisfy my hunger I go to grab another orange when all of a sudden he slaps my hand. I look at him and he says..."If you can't eat it all. You can't have any." He finishes his last piece of orange, grabs the bag and puts it back on the shelf. As he walks out of the kitchen he says, "Those dishes wont wash themselves." I decided he's right. I yell, "AMANDA, dad said you have to wash the dishes."

I'd like to say I went and grabbed the bag of oranges and ate another despise his disapproval, but I didn't. Deep down I knew I was being wasteful and actually stopped eating oranges for a good five or six years. Only until moving to Korea have I started eating tangerines again. And yes, I'm eating the entire fruit now!

Cheers to 2014

Let's catch up....

Fall Festival - Andong Volunteer Association (AVA) held a festival for the children of Gyeongan Sinyuk Orphanage. The children played a number of games, bobbed for apples, had their face painted and even made their own little painted creations. Before eating pizza they participated in a candy hunt, which was actually very entertaining to watch all of the kids run to find as many pieces of candy as possible. I usually volunteer at the face painting booth, but this year was responsible for the bobbing for apples booth. I'm so happy I was able to see these kids try so hard to bite the apples! Literally. Made. My. Day.

Thanksgiving - I was a little homesick, but it was good.

Random adventures with friends - Spent the weekend in Seoul watching the musical Mamma Mia, eating delicious food at Braai Republic and of course spending the night out with wonderful friends!

Christmas - A very nice Christmas with great food & company!

New Years - In flight on my way to Hong Kong. As you can imagine...uneventful.

Favorite Kpop song of 2013:

2014 - I can't believe another year has passed. 2014 is here and I have a feeling this year will be a great one. Not only have I finally paid off AND sold my money guzzling waste of time piece of crap car, but I'm so close to almost paying off my largest loan. In three months time I will be free! Not from all loans. Let's be realistic, I went to school for a total of five years and also studied abroad; I have racked up some debt. But I will be free from the loan that has given me the most anxiety, stress, sleepless nights and has been the dark cloud following me for years showering me with a hail size rainstorm. A good start to a new year if you ask me!

It's winter vacation and I don't have class again until February 3rd. With a short vacation to keep me occupied for a while, I'm back to desk warming. Today I'm on day 6 out of 12 and I'm so bored! I have a few projects to keep my mind busy, but it's not looking promising.

Hong Kong - I spent five days in Hong Kong and it was a great city to visit. Outside of Korea, I've only traveled to one other Asian country. So it was very refreshing to see how different HK was from Korea and even the Philippines. A very diverse full of energy city. Plus everyone was super friendly!

Victoria's Peak - We first arrived ready to take the tram up to Victoria's Peak only to find it was an hour and a half wait. Not wanting to waste time, we quickly ate lunch and decided to take a taxi. As we climbed higher it was a fast ten minute drive with an amazing view of the city. And it only cost HK$ 50.8 which was split four ways making it cheaper than the HK $28/person tram ride up. However, since the wait to take the tram back down to the city was only 15-20 minutes we decided to do this. The tram ride is worth a 15-20 minute wait, but definitely NOT an hour wait. It's only a ten minute ride (maybe) and the view wasn't as great as the view we had while in the taxi. So if you're traveling in a group and the wait for the tram is too long think about taking a taxi. Definitely worth it! Also, we didn't realize this while there, but there are different walking paths. So if you have time, you may want to explore.

10,000 Buddhas Monastery - I really enjoyed this monastery and suggest going if you have time. It is free, but the top section closes at 5pm which we were completely unaware of. I do suggest giving yourself enough time to visit all parts of the monastery. After looking at pictures online I really wish we had gone earlier.

Story: As we're climbing the stairs taking in the view a random boy carrying a few plastic bags walks by. As he passes one of his bags break and fireworks fall out spilling onto the stairs. We obviously go and help, but as we're trying to make small talk he says nothing and only looks down. We assume since we're foreigners we are overwhelming him and making him nervous. Once we're finished he grabs his bags and continues to quickly walk down the stairs. As we giggle and turn to continue up an elderly woman is now standing in front of us speaking in what I assume is Cantonese. We clearly don't understand what she's saying. Maybe because of this she becomes frustrated and literally starts yelling and pointing her finger at Ashley. Not knowing what she's saying or why she's yelling at us we give each other the look. Ashely and I have lived in Asia for some time and have experienced being yelled out by elders on numerous occasions. For what? I never know, but if the look is given all parties involve automatically know it's time to walk away. Before we can even confirm the look and start to walk away we hear a little boy screaming in perfect English, "SHE'S CRAZY!!!!!" We turn to see the young boy we helped now standing at the very bottom waving his hand in the air as if to say, "it's not worth it, just keep walking".  And so we do. 

Harbor Show, Market & Fortune Tellers

The Big Buddha and Tai O Fishing Village - I never would have thought to go and explore Tai O village, but I'm definitely glad we did. It was nice to see the more traditional older Hong Kong. We bought a package deal that included a one way cable car ride to The Big Buddha, a bus ride to Tai O, a boat ride around the fishing village and a bus ride back. All was HK$ 175. We realized if we bought all of the tickets separately it would have been around HK$ 150. But it was nice to already have all tickets. 

Macau - We were in Hong Kong for five full days so we decided to spend one day in Macau. If you have time I do highly suggest going here and spending a day. It's super easy to travel to and worth the visit. With the more British influence in Hong Kong and a Portuguese influence in Macau it's interesting to see the contrast between the two special administrative regions of China. Also, Macau's Portuguese egg tarts were amazing!! As for taking the ferry from HK to Macau make sure you know what terminal you wish to arrive at. There are two. One goes to the city and the other to the rural areas of Macau. As for tickets, they shouldn't cost more than HK$ 150. Each company will sell them for different prices, but look around and make sure you're buying them for a fair price. On your way back tickets increase after 5:30pm. We didn't realize this and had to pay HK$ 175. 

This wasn't a life changing trip, but I'm fortunate enough to have the opportunity to travel and Hong Kong/Macau was a nice break from Korea. Plus they had a ton of foreign/a variety of food. Normally I would rather only eat local food, but since I've been without for so long it was nice to eat more familiar foods while also eating food native to Hong Kong.

The only downfall of this trip.....they didn't stamp my passport.