Goodbye to 2009!

On one of many frigid subway rides to work, my Korean friend asked me what I was most thankful for over the past year. This question got my inner wheels turning and the steam started rolling from my ears and out popped this blog baby. ;) After many starts and stops and having to play hardball with loads of good memories, I finally came down to a *cough* concise list.



Rightfully named by our partner in crime, Theresa, for our peer pressured (aka forced) consumption of a teeny tiny, eenie weenie, iddy biddy, insignificant peice of dog meat that was served up to us on a golden platter with great love and expectation by our schools. One fact is for sure, once you've eaten a poodle, you'll never go back, every time a see a little pooch walking around on a leash I wonder how it would taste on a nice lettuce and tomato sandwich! Just kidding, just kidding! If truth be told, I fell to the floor in front of the whole table grabbing my throat and gagging on the first tiny, insignificant, forced bite! Inge, on the other hand, sat there contentedly munching on poor Lassie's right leg!



Hey seoul sista! Thanks for putting up with my endless jabber, shoot sometimes I even bore myself to tears, but you're still sitting their kindly listening. You're a saint! Yes, St. Hooker it is! I'm so excited to share this Korean adventure with you! Let's go hitch hike and eat our away across Indonesia! ;)

Goodbye November and Hello December! There are many good things to say about December: it's usually a beautiful snowy wonderland! It's the month of Christmas, so loads of cozy Christmas lights (which I personally adore and, yes Theresa, keep up all year round!) and the yummy smells of pine and cinnamon! It's also the month I was born so of course it's gotta be great! ;) On the downside it's THE coldest month in Korea! And who in their right minds, knowing this, would sign up to run a 10k race?! That's right, you're looking at her. Not one of my brightest moments I gotta say, but last weekend Inge and I layered on clothes looking suspiciously like Eskimos and making us waddle like penguins (I'm liking these arctic analogies) and hopped on a train to Seoul for what I like to consider as our "cold endurance training" of the season. It was frigid, sub arctic temperature, wind and snow, frostbite, run-or-die, kind of cold. But we ran like the wind (okay maybe just a slow moving breeze) and sprinted the last mile and I came as close as I ever have to losing my breakfast (thought you'd be proud Kevin). Afterward, we went out for a celebratory dinner of Mexican and margaritas and my stomach was so full it was hard dragging it behind me onto the subway home! But the whole occasion (frostbite and all) was a memorable one for sure!
There are a few perks to being an English teacher, aside from the obvious, you know, corrupting the minds of Korean children everywhere and making a little extra money by initiating a classroom cover charge (wait, did I say that out loud?!), but one of the better ones is that we get a whole month off of paid vacation at the end of December and beginning of January! I know, I nearly cried in my Wheaties when I heard this too! Our plane tickets are booked and we are officially heading to great land of Indonesia on Dec. 24th...Why? Well, because it's summer there, it's a tropical jungle paradise with elephants and monkeys, it has white sandy beaches just dying for us to layout on, and a 1hr massage costs $2! Actually there is so much more to Indonesia than that, but I'm afraid if I get started I wont be able to stop! So needless to say, I'm counting the days and dreaming warm tropical dreams at night.
Above are some pictures of my wonderful students and our attempts at decorating my classroom windows with knickknacks and paper snowflakes. Enjoy!