Strawberries Strawberries and more Strawberries

It is the beginning of strawberry season in Korea. There's been strawberries for quite a few weeks now, but they were really expensive. They are now down to a more reasonable price. Reasonable that I would buy them at least. Which I did. Tonight. And made strawberry bavarian for our church potluck tomorrow. I'm actually surprised it turned out because I don't have beaters. My arms got sore after using the wisk the whole time, but now I'm all made of muscles so it was worth it I guess :) In case I never mentioned it before, I LOVE strawberries. I can't stop myself from eating them. Last Wednesday at Samseo my school ended an hour earlier so that the teachers from my school and the elementary school next door could play volleyball all afternoon. It was awesomely intense. Anyway, the point is, afterwards we had an early dinner meal and there were plates of strawberries. My principal realized after a bit that I loved them and gave me the plate. Not a good idea. I almost ate all of them. Or maybe it was a good thing because me and Kris are having a No Munchies March competition and I'm losing majorly (thanks to my co-teacher) so I needed the healthy food rather than the rice cakes. Although he also wanted me to eat a cow's head which normally would be fine, but Korean's don't take the fat off anything. 3/4 of half the meat they serve is fat. Ugh.
As we all know, Canada beat the United States in the Olympic men's hockey gold medal game. Being in Korea, that meant we had to wake up at 5am to watch the game. Kris and I went to Laura's place in Hwasun and along with Amanda we had an Olympic party.
We were rather hyper the night before because we all had vacation stories to tell. Laura went to Norway to visit a friend and Amanda went to Mozambique to help out at a Christian centre there.

Needless to say, we missed each other and pigged out on pizza and snacks the night before and pancakes and strawberries and bananas the next morning (hence the reason Kris and I did a No Munchies March. We were feeling fat)

Laura doing the cobra pose of the men's speed skating team. Was is team pursuit or relay? I forget. But that's not the point, the point is Canada rocks. Enough said.

Fast Forward a week.... GAB'S BIRTHDAY BASH! Kris and I threw her an awesome party. Poster signs on her door, balloons, cupcakes (that I couldn't eat...sad), awesome presents, and a night out with friends.

Unam girls hanging out at Seoul Train in downtown Gwangju.

Kris and I almost did a record picture run. I stole Kris' camera for the night (because mine has no flash. I'm going to keep reminding you guys about that. Maybe someone will eventually catch on and buy me a digital SLR...? I'm still hoping...) and apparently took hundreds. Becuase I'm awesome like that.

The second three coolest people at the party (Note: Kris and I are part of the first and second coolest groups. In case you didn't notice.) Our awesome personal photographer (yes, he's now become our personal photograher. No matter what he or anyone else says).

Kris and I at Seoul Train.

I didn't really take many pictures in March. Partly because we didn't do a whole lot. Ok, that's a lie, I did so much this month, but not all of it was picture worthy. Especially the school stuff. I have been so insanely busy this month with school I'm about to get grey hair. I'm not quite there yet. If I was, you'd start mixing me and my Mom up :)

Anyway, I've really enjoyed being back in school. I missed my students. They have grown SO MUCH! I can't believe it! I also have a new batch of grade one students who I have a love/hate relationship with. They are so polite in the halls. They do full bows to me (which the grade 2 and 3's have stopped doing) and still say "Annyeonghaseyo" to me. Which I reply "hi" they get a confused look on their face until they realize they're supposed to speak English to me. That's the love part. The hate part comes in class. They are so noisy! Every teacher has complained about them so it's not only in my classes. Both Cindy and I freaked on them last week and so many students apologized in their diaries for the day. I hope it worked. They also have a habbit of speaking to me in Korean. HA! Like I know what they're saying! most of the time at least. I know enough classroom Korean to understand some stuff. My problem is, if they say something in Korean that I know, I answer in English forgetting to make them ask in English.

One of my grade three boys is convinced I speak Korean now fluently and always jokes around by speaking to me in Korean. He's not the only one though. My devil boy from Sinheung is also convinced of it and says stuff in Korean, a lot of which I understand so when I accidently answer, he thinks I know more than I do. I really don't know all that much. Just basics. But once you answer once, they think you know it all. I need to work on NOT answering.

I am teaching two more extra classes this term as well. One being genius classes from all the surrounding schools. I start on Thursday and have NO idea what I'm supposed to be teaching them. I meant to spend all day today lesson planning, but Heejae invited me to a wedding of a friend and I really couldn't pass that up. The wedding was just as insane as the one I went to with Cindy and much better food than the other one I went to with Heejae.

Back in January, Kris and I joined the worship band at our church, but couldn't start until we got back from vacation. We've been in it now officially for about a month and have practice Saturday nights. My morning was spent cleaning my apartment since after the wedding Heejae was coming to my place for guitar lessons and I haven't cleaned in a while. Like, a long while. Probably since I got back from vacation really. I've just been so busy. No time.

I found real cereal in Korea! Cereal that isn't frosted! Healthy cereal! It made my month.

I haven't had the heater on since I got back. My stupid apartment doesn't heat properly so in January it cost an arm, leg, butt, and hair for that bill. There's a breeze coming from somewhere, I just can't find it! All the windows are locked, doors to the balconies closed. Where it's coming from I have no idea. It comes and goes. Maybe it's haunted? That would be cool! So yeah, no heater for me. Instead I wear sweaters and blankets when I'm home. Which these days isn't often. Last bill for me was 13,000 won!! About 100,000 won cheaper than January. So worth being cold for. But then, it's actually not that cold in Korea right now. Spring is coming!

I went bowling last Saturday with Samgye. My co-teacher runs the bowling club activities once a month and asked if I wanted to come. I gave up my Saturday and going to the blossem festival with Sam, Gab, and Kris to go bowling. It was a lot of fun. We learned proper techniques and my students kicked my ass. Cindy and I with four grade three boys. Two of which who bowl regularly. They tried teaching my properly, but I still failed. The instructor laughed at me a lot. Probably because he could only do so much to correct me seeing as he didn't speak English (other than 1,2,3 go!)

It snowed once two weeks ago. Enough for a snowday, but NOOOO my co made sure we made it to school. Took 2 1/2 hours and I missed first period which I was supposed to teach grade three. Though my school was so thoughtful and changed the schedule so that I'd teach them second period instead. lucky me. I still missed some of it though. My co said it was because they missed me (Yeah, sure. Another teacher probably just didn't want to teach their class).

There's more I could write, a lot has happened and I haven't exactly been blogging this month. After Gem died I had the worst week of my life. All the teachers noticed. I didn't exactly try to hide my mood (other than in class, although I think some students noticed as well) and kept to myself a lot. My co-teaachers knew what happened though and one (disco from Samseo) decided to tell all the teachers. The rest of that day I could feel the eyes of the teachers on me checking up on me. Maybe to see if I'd break down crying, I'm not sure. This past week though, I told myself I'd have an awesome week. Cindy's boyfriend Min moved to Germany to work as well and we had both been in sad moods. So we made a deal, sealed with a totally awesome handshake we came up with and danced around The Cave (our name for the English lab) to music. It worked because we both had an awesome week. Again, the teachers noticed and commented on how I didn't look depressed anymore. Nice of them....

Well, now it's past midnight and I have to wake up at 6am for a skype date. Mom, if you forget this skype date, you owe me a digial SLR.

Gemdar, my best friend

March 11, 2010 When I said goodbye to Gemdar on August 12, 2009 I promised him I would be back in a year. I told him going to Korea was something I had to do. That I wasn't abandoning him or leaving him. I would be back and I would never leave him again. I promised that he'd be taken care of, groomed, and ridden. He wouldn't even notice I was gone. I told him it would be like when I was in university and could only come home once a month, only this time the month would last a lot longer. I told him Classy would keep him company and they would become friends. I told him all the new things I wanted to teach to him. I didn't know that the last time I hugged him, smelled his neck, pat him, and kissed him goodbye that it would be my final goodbye and I would never again see my boy.
Almost exactly seven months to the day I said goodbye - only off by one day - my Mom broke the news that Gem had suddenly died. No warning, no signs, no indication he was living his last day. An otherwise perfectly healthy horse dropped dead. My horse. My boy. My best friend. The one I told my secrets too. The one I cried on. The one who I enjoyed company with the most was gone.
the past seven months, whenever someone asked me if I missed my family I'd say "not really". Usually they were surprised and I'd tell them that I get to talk to them on webcam quite frequently and being able to see them and talk to them helps me not miss them as much as I would if I never got to talk to them. The next question would usually be "what do you miss most then?" My answer: Gem. I had three pets of my own when I left for Korea. My fish, Alex, died three weeks after I left. Dustie, my cat, I get to see on webcam and though I miss her, seeing her helps. Gem, I haven't seen for seven months. Now I'll never get to see him again.
That night was the worst night of my life. It was the news I least expected to hear. It's torn me up inside. I've cried all the tears I have. There's nothing left. The bond between Gem and I isn't something that can come overnight or even in a few meetings. We spent a lot of time together over the years. I know his every mood, how he'll act in every single situation, and what's best for him. No one knows him like I do and yet, I wasn't there for him in his last months. I regret that. But at the same time, all those years we had together can't be traded for anything.
I'll never have another horse like Gem.