this is what happens when you fall off a bus:

Yesterday, after a perfectly delightful dinner and coffee outing in Seoul with my pal Sunny, I put a damper on my evening.  As I exited my bus to Gwangju, I narrowly missed stepping onto the curb, and instead, tumbled out of the bus and onto the street between the bus and the sidewalk.  In true Noelle fashion, I twisted the hell out of my left ankle.  (Yep folks - this marks the second time in six or so months that I've sprained the same ankle...  Good stuff.)

So, after our first day of Winter Camp came to a close, Dionne and Scott drove me to the hospital and guided me through the whole process (seriously, I'd be one sick puppy without the Husteds!  They are awesome!).  And, let me just say, the Korean healthcare system is crazy efficient... and awesome!  I was in and out in 40 minutes from arrival to payment.

First, I took a number and waited less than five minutes to check in with the front desk.  The woman who helped me asked me all kinds of general questions and pointed me to the foot doctor down the hall.  I waited between five and ten minutes to see the doctor and when I went into his office, it was all business.  He looked at my foot, felt both sides of my ankle and sent me to have it x-rayed.  The x-ray happened bad fast and in five minutes or so, I was looking at it on a computer in the doctor's office.  It wasn't broken (though you could have fooled me - ankles look crazy!) so after we scheduled a follow-up appointment for Thursday morning, I went across the hall to get my ankle set in a splint.  The kid that set my ankle was real nice and he got extra cool points because he smelled real nice :)  But of course, no experience would be complete without an awkward exchange, ergo the following:

Splint Kid: (looking up at me and making awkward eye contact) Russian?
Noelle: What?
SK: Russian?
Noelle: (still not sure what he said because I was expecting it to have something to do with my foot) uhhh no...
SK: Blue eyes!
Noelle: Yep!  (then I understood...) I'm American...
SK:  Oh. American.

And with that, I was off to the pay station.  The whole situation cost me around $30.  Not bad, not bad...

And so, here I sit, in my apartment, busying myself by preparing for Ruth's arrival tomorrow (!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and icing my ankle with various frozen food from my freezer.  My current choice is dumplings, though pineapple and aloe vera have also made appearances...  I should be up and running in no time :)

Hello, 2012.

In an effort to further put off doing the dishes (a task I absolutely loathe), here I am, posting pictures from a delightfully low-key New Year's Eve with some of my best gal pals.

We started our afternoon by combing Gwangju for fireworks.  The man who runs the costume shop in town is soooo funny, and festive, and certainly came through in the fireworks department.  I've heard he can be cranky, but I've never seen that side of him.  How can you run a holiday / costume / pyrotechnics shop and be a miser?  I think he's delightful.

Next, we made a real sweet three layer funfetti cake with green tea vanilla frosting and fresh strawberries.  YUM.  Somehow, Korea's strawberries are 100% flavorful 100% of the time.  I don't understand, but I'm certainly not complaining - those things are too delicious to worry about why they are as such.

Then, at the stroke of 11:45ish, we ventured down to the shallow creek (that sometimes transforms to a river...) that separates our 'hood from the rest of the Gwangj.  We stood in the middle of the (frozen) creek, lighting off fireworks and dancing around with sparklers.  For a good hour and a half.  (That's how many fireworks and sparklers we bought!)  It was so, so fun and oddly refreshing (and maybe invigorating too) to be outside in the crisp air with sparkly fire in the wee hours of the morning with some of my favorite Korea pals.  I think we should do it again.

Then, we hightailed it back to the warmth of Miss Desiree's apartment to eat our cake and drink some wine.  This is my favorite kind of New Year's Eve celebration, especially if it involves wearing sweatpants.

A Day in the Gwangj...

Desiree and I ventured out on the town today.  We mailed some letters, bought some bread, ran into about a dozen students, walked down my favorite street (twice!) and gave the head honcho at our bank a little lesson in American English by reading the Lord's Prayer and the Apostle's Creed for him so he could make accent and pronunciation marks.  Never a dull day in the Gwangj...

In other news, winter break [round one] is in full swing.  I've been thoroughly enjoying sleeping without the looming sound of an alarm clock, watching embarrassing amounts of Breaking Bad and recuperating from an exhausting last couple of weeks of school - (that's a funny joke) - the last two weeks of school went like this:
(The projector screen in the classroom is down, the lights are turned off and the chairs and tables are arranged in tight rows, perfect for staring at the projector screen in the dark.)
Students: "Teacher!  We will watch movie?"
Noelle: NO!
Students: Really, Teacher?
Noelle: Really.
Students: So sad story, Teacher.
Noelle:  HAHAHAHAHA!  Just kidding!  We're watching School of Rock!
Students: (nervous laughing).

Also, with some of the first grade students, we played a Christmas game.  Some gems from said Christmas game:
Q: Who helps Santa make toys?
A: Bart Simpson?

Q: What does Santa ride on?
A: Toilet!

Christmas, Christmas Time [Was] Here

Oh what a Christmas!  I miss home wayyyy more than last year, so I was a little nervous for what Christmas would hold.  But, it was absolutely fantastic.  The community of people with whom I have surrounded myself in the last several months made all the difference.

A week of celebrating Christmas started with our weekly potluck, hosted by the Husted's.  Ten of us gathered for a beautiful start to the holiday, complete with delicious food, great conversation and some pretty strange white elephant gifts.

It snowed on Wednesday, and even though it was just a little (and it melted pretty much right away), it added to the Christmas feeling.  When it began to snow even more Friday night, it finally felt the way Christmas should.  It's funny how important the presence of snow is, for me, to really feel Christmas.  Thank you, Iowa :)

Thursday night was an EB teacher's dinner at a swank place called Il Party Room.  A fantastic buffet dinner, being surrounded by some of my favorite Koreans, and some creatively planned gifts for each teacher made for a delightful night.  Friday night was the Christmas dinner for all three Kyunghwa schools, held in our school's gymnasium.  Following dinner, all of my closest girl friends gathered at my place for a little Christmas party.  We enjoyed wine, secret Santa gifts and conversation.  A fantastic evening, indeed.

The next morning, I met some of the students with whom I am the closest for coffee.  Both of them are third graders and are graduating (one of them, WonYoung, moved to Malaysia yesterday to go to college and SuGa has been training for a job at a bank for about a month) so it was nice to hang out them one last time.  After coffee, I met Diane, Desiree and Grace at E-Mart to make some Christmas Eve dinner purchases.  We happened to walk past a man playing Santa Claus and decided we needed our picture taken with him.  I asked the closest man to me (in broken Korean, more Konglish really, if you can even call it that) to take our picture (Uhhh... Po-to, ju-say-yo? (translation: Photo, please?) to which the man replied, in beautiful English, "Sure, no problem.  Do I press this button?"  I felt like such a dunce.

On we went to Dionne and Scott's for a beautiful Christmas Eve feast.  We had crazy amounts of seafood, clam chowder, lobster, smoked salmon, Caesar salad, bottle and bottles of wine and cupcakes.  Wowza.  Then, we read How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the first time for me - a travesty, I know.) and a ghost story involving a mysterious trunk.  What a crazy, delightful, fantastic turn of Christmas events.

The next morning, we woke up, opened gifts at Desiree's and went back to the Husted's for Christmas breakfast.  Oh wow.  I feel lucky to have made friends with so many people who not only know how to cook like crazies but are so generous with sharing their culinary gifts.  For Christmas breakfast, we had smoked salmon omelets, sourdough waffles and fruit.  It was so relaxing to sit in their living room with the sun streaming through their huge windows, eating, laughing and thoroughly enjoying ourselves.  As if that wasn't awesome enough, we watched A Christmas Story.  My holiday was made.

For dinner that night, Desiree, Diane, Grace and I ventured to our favorite Chinese restaurant for our favorite Chinese fare.  Seriously, I don't know what the woman puts in that food, but it is pure magic.  Every. Single. Time.

And so, that is how my second Korean Christmas became one for the books.  Last week, along with the so-close-I-can-hardly-contain-my-excitement arrivals of Ruth (in a week and a half!!) and my parents (in seven weeks!!) have revitalized me.

English Festival

Oh my gosh.  English Festival.  What a delightful day.

It started with some English speeches (two from which I posted excerpts).  The first graders were to introduce themselves, but were given instructions to be entirely creative in so doing.  The second graders gave informative speeches about a variety of topics.  I am always surprised at how creative our students prove to be.

Next, there was a singing contest.  Each first and second grade homeroom was somehow represented, either through whole choirs, smaller ensembles or solos.  My absolute favorite performance was an acapella rendition of a Lady Gaga medley.  Oh. My. Wow.  They were awesome.  And, I found out later that they didn't even have music.  They taught themselves (there were six singers and one beat boxer!) each part by watching a YouTube video!

After we watched each of the first grade homerooms perform their winning business plays, the students played a few different English games.  I can't get over how competitive they are - one homeroom kept telling me that another was cheating and I always had company as I was tallying each team's points.  Yikes.

Last, Dionne and I taught (more like reviewed, since we'd already done this with all of our classes...) everyone (including the teachers!!) two line dances: The Macarena and the Cupid Shuffle.  Watching as the entire gym was filled with line dancing students and teachers was so fantastic.

And so, English Festival closed up our school year (for the most part) nicely.

My Students are Clever Little Boogers

Sorry (or maybe not?) for the unrelated pictures from our last two potlucks - t*party and bacon - wowza, can my friends cook!

Next Tuesday is English Festival (there are posters plastered around school with Santa and snow scenes saying "English Festival: Coming Soon!" ... awesome!) and the English department is in the middle of preparations.  Here's a rundown of the day's events:

• English Speech Contest
• English Business Play Contest (original plays written by our first graders whose only requirement was to use business English dialogue that we have worked on over the course of the school year)
• English Song Contest
• Line Dancing (!!!)
• Various English Relay Games

Today, I was editing some of the English speeches by some first graders and I came across some clever little gems that I just had to share:

You may not know me because we are in different classes, but I am famous in class 3 - it is not a lie! As you know, I'm a cool class president who goes hiking every morning, just like everyone who goes to this school.  For the moment, I want to introduce my family who play a big role in my life. Some of you guys know that I have seven family members in my family. So incredible, right?!  But, there is something more important. Please be ready to listen to it. It is that all children in our family are all the pretty girls! Wow! How is it possible? It make you curious on who my father? He is look great, right?!

She goes on to write about the love of her life (a famous Korean actor), her strengths and weaknesses and her dream of being a wonderful career woman.  I love this girl.  She's ab-fab for sure.

Another girl who is about as funny as they come:

(She's going to play a song and stop it before the best part of the song) Just now, I stopped the music before the best part. Do you know the reason by any chance? wow~ That's because the highlight of this stage is me!  ...  (She goes on to talk about how she's the youngest student at Kyunghwa because her birthday is Feb. 29 and then she says): I was already given a birthday present when I came to Kyunghwa (She's going to lift up her skirt to show her legs): well muscled legs. Has everyone else received them too? 

She goes on to talk about her determination to study after she failed a business English exam and was "stricken with grief."  Then, she tells a story about some handsome man stopping her on the street to ask if she's the sister of some other girl who she looks a lot like and how disappointed she was that he wasn't asking her out.  HA!  I'm not sure what else her speech entailed because about half of each paragraph was still in Korean, but I'm sure it was just as delightful as the already translated parts :)

Based solely on these two speeches, I am over-the-moon excited for next Tuesday!  Bring on the awesome, Kyunghwa!  I'm all sorts of ready.

A "Meating" With the Husteds

Tonight for dinner, the Husteds and I went to our favorite neighborhood all-you-can-eat grill house for what Jonah coined a "meating" (haha, get it?).  I hadn't been there since my birthday (what a crime!), so I was long overdue for a marinated beef feast.

Post "meating", we retired to the Husted's for an episode of Pushing Daisies (what a fantastic show!) and some banana pudding.  What a great end to a completely relaxing day.

This week is going to be super chill - I teach (read: watch School of Rock) just three third grade classes since the first and second graders have their finals this week and the third graders have a special program on Thursday.  That also means that I don't have school on Monday or Thursday.  The school year is winding down and I'm left wondering where the time has gone...

I've been listening to Boyce Avenue all day.  Love that man's voice and mellow acoustic take on otherwise guilty pleasure pop songs.  I'm especially a fan of Cover Collaborations Vol. 1 in which he sings his signature cover songs, but as duets with some other similarly sweet sounding friends.  Check him out.  You won't be sorry :)

Also, I had a weird epiphany tonight as I left my apartment to meet the Husteds.  When I'm in my apartment or with other foreigners, I kind of forget that I live in Korea.  Since I spent the whole day in my own little world, watching American television, listening to American music, etc., the moment I stepped onto the street tonight, it kind of hit me that (HOLY COW!) I live in Korea.  You'd think after over a year of this lifestyle, I'd be used to it, but almost daily, I get a glorious reminder of what my life entails and I'd be lying if I said it wasn't refreshing.