So, I've been busy busy busy and then out of the country, and didn't touch my blog or even think of it while I was in Washington with the family. Have I had some adventures since my last post! I'll give you a run-down of my weekends leading up to my vacation in the States.
Following the unfortunate wallet theft (the thief got $900 out of my account, ugh! I got the money back in the end, but it was a hassle!) I had literally no voice at all and showed my students movies in class, something which I never do, but really, I had no choice, I could not make a sound.
That weekend I went to Yangyang and stayed at the home of my lovely friends Hannah and Trevor, and pulled off a magnificent surprise party for Hannah. Or Trevor did anyway, for me the main task was not to give away the surprise.
The weekend after that was another infamous adventure. I was trying to get to a town called Dogye, where I would spend the night with friends before heading to the nearby ski resort, High1. There was no possible way to get from Sincheorwon to Dogye that did not involve me arriving in the middle of the night, so I decided to take the train, thinking it would be more comfortable than the bus (it wasn't).
I managed to fall asleep and miss my stop and woke in the wrong town at 4am. I panicked and very nearly left my bag on the train, and then headed to the station and tearfully told the worker (who was locking up the building!) my predicament. She looked very concerned and told me sadly "No bus, no train... 8am train!" well, I wasn't going to spend 4 hours in the freezing cold, so I took a pricey taxi ride to Dogye and arrived around 4:45am, at which point I had no way of finding my friends apartment. I had the address, but couldn't get a taxi at that horrible hour. I went into a convenience store where I was comfortably looked after by the very motherly worker. She insisted that I sit in her chair next to the heater and gave me a cup of tea, tried to call several taxi services and told every customer who came in about my plight. In the end, she convinced one of the customers to give me a ride, so I climbed into the car of a strange man who had happened to stop at the convenience to store to buy cigarettes at 5am, and he gave me a ride to Sam's apartment and then promptly honked the car horn long and hard and woke the whole building, to my embarrassment. Well, it did turn out to be the right building and I did find my friends in the end, so I guess it worked out ok.
The following weekend it was back to Yangyang for a tender Christmas party! Good times and pancake breakfasts were had.
Then we had a lovely Christmas party in Dongsong, which involved a gift exchange, karaoke, and homemade egg nog.
And then it was off to the States!
A few more notes:
I got my camera fixed while I was in the States, hurray! I can post much nicer pictures now, hopefully.
I composed a list for Korean New Years' for your general enjoyment. Everyone who knows me knows that I am quite awkward and clumsy. I miss my mouth and pour coffee down my front, trip over my own feet and run into stationary objects on quite a regular basis. And I've found the best way to deal with this is a great deal of laughter at myself. And I don't mind at all if other people laugh a bit too, because I fully admit that I am good at making myself look ridiculous. So, for your enjoyment, the top three moments of Jaquie-awkwardness last year:
3. The Revolving Door Incident
There are revolving doors outside of the Lotte Mart under Gangbyeon station (where I buy cheese!) and I am not really used to revolving doors. One day, in my hurry to buy cheese, I mistimed my entry into the door, forgetting I was wearing a large backpack. The door went CRUNCH on my backpack and came to an abrupt halt, causing a couple of Koreans who were exiting at the same time I entered to run into the glass. We all had to stop and push the door backward to release my backpack before anyone could else could go in or out of the door.
2. Gerings Imitating Bowling Pins
At least I know where I got the awkward genes from. My parents and I went skiing and were approaching the lift for our first run of the day. However, a mis-communication, a lift operator in the wrong place at the wrong time, and our excellent ability to mistime things, meant that no one actually got on the lift except dad-- and he was unceremoniously dumped off when the operator grabbed the chair to try and stop it hitting my mom. Down the three Gerings all went, dad's skis coming off in the process, and they had to stop the lift until we all got the tangle of skis and limbs sorted out and safely on the chair.
1. I am the Opposite of Robin Hood
And by that, I mean I've got terrible aim with a bow and arrow, well, actually, I've got terrible aim with just about anything (don't stand beside me when I try to skip stones!). Whilst being ushered around Seoul by a film crew, it was decided that the foreigners ought to decorate toy bows and then practice shooting with them. Decorating, well, that I was good at, but when it came to shooting the results were not so great. After several laughably bad attempts, I hit a bull's eye by pure luck and proceeded to gloat, at which point my friend Cal told me he would give me W100,000 (about $100) if I hit the cameraman in the face. I laughed, because I wasn't, of course, going to hit the cameraman in the face, that would be mean. Alas, the cameraman would probably have been safer if I had aimed for him. I was full of confidence as I took the next shot... which went several feet above the target, ricocheted off a wall and hit the cameraman.
My first reaction was to duck out of sight before the cameraman could see who'd shot that arrow, and then to laugh helplessly until tears ran down my face while my concerned friends gathered around me trying to ascertain whether I was laughing or crying.
