Winter Blues: Easily Cured by Epic Ski Trips

So I knew that it had been a long time since I had written anything on this blog, but I didn't realize that it had been over a month until I logged on to update just now. I have been telling myself for the last few weeks or so that I needed to write, but slogging through this winter had just made me...sluggish. Lazy. Though I undoubtedly seem wimpy to people who have experienced "real" winters (e.g. in Nebraska, Michigan, Minnesota, or Canada), growing up in Texas simply did not prepare me for this kind of gray, extended cold. Even the year in Cincinnati didn't help - plus I absolutely hated it there, so I may not have been able to distinguish the cold-induced misery from my general distaste of the place.

I have had a legitimate case of the winter blues, pretty much since shortly after New Year's. I have had trouble waking up early, which means I have not been exercising or taking quiet time in the mornings much at all. I hate going outside, which means I haven't gone to the market or to E-mart to buy groceries, which means I haven't cooked at all. I haven't wanted to Skype (sorry friends), go out, answer e-mails, or really do anything at all...except play Fable on Xbox. I have definitely done plenty of that.

I also had a bit of disappointment earlier this month when I wanted to go see Aung San Suu Kyi accept an award for democracy here in Gwangju. My Korean teacher was gracious enough to call City Hall to get information about where the award ceremony would be, and at what time, and she even let us reschedule one of the classes so that I could go see her (there are only two of us in the class, and the other student was going to be gone that day, too, but still). Anyway, I had to take both the bus and the subway to the convention center on other side of town (a trip that took over an hour one way), and when I got there, they told me that I needed an invitation to get in. I even had a random Korean dude try to help me, but no dice. It wouldn't have been a huge deal, even, except that a friend of mine who lives right by the convention center got there early and was able to get in with the crowd that followed her into the building. Talk about a let-down.

Things have not been the greatest at work, either. Our Korean head teacher has implemented a new policy that all afternoon teachers have to be in two hours earlier than usual on the first day of the new session, ostensibly to prepare for our classes. What this actually means is that we are supposed to come in early so that we can get our test scores into the one computer shared by thirteen afternoon teachers. Unfortunately, there is always someone (usually multiple people) who isn't able to get their grades into the computer before classes start anyway...because there is only one computer for thirteen of us. On top of that, the kinder program is holding its big graduation ceremony this Friday, which puts additional strain on the kinder teachers (and, of course the Korean head teacher). Combined with the fact that we didn't have any kind of extended time off between the end of September and the New Year, and then again until last weekend...suffice it to say that tempers have run a little hot.

Luckily, the stressful monotony was broken for us last weekend with a ski trip to High1, a ski/snowboarding resort in Gangwondo (the northeastern-most province in South Korea). There is a Daegu-based travel group that organizes occasional trips to that resort, so we opted for a change of scenery and hopped onto a bus to Daegu to catch the group tour to the resort over the Lunar New Year. It was definitely a hike to get there and back - three hours from Gwangju to Daegu, and then another three to the resort - but it was absolutely worth it. We got in two full days of skiing on Sunday and Monday, and the travel group hosted a party on Sunday night.

Alas, we did not have a say in the color of our rented ski clothes. Luckily, Joel was pretty excited about his bright pink ski jacket.

I was also happy with my much-more-subdued blue jacket...and the matching hat (now my new favorite hat) that I picked up for only W10K. 

 It was really nice to meet some new people and make new friends, though we were really surprised at how few Americans were on the trip. Apparently, most of the Irish people who travel to Korea to teach wind up in Daegu, so there is a massive Irish community there; we also met lots of English and Scottish people, several South Africans, a few Aussies and Kiwis, and a couple of Canadians. There were maybe ten Americans that we met on the trip - including us. The skiing was really good, too - the nice thing about this particular resort is that it had several long beginner-level runs from the top of the mountain down to the valley, so I was able to get some good practice - and I even screwed up the courage to try some of the intermediate-level runs. In the end, we had such a good time that we are planning to go to Muju (the ski resort on our side of the peninsula, which is much closer) this coming weekend for a skiing day-trip.

I had another minor let-down this past week when I headed into church on Wednesday morning to go to Ash Wednesday Mass...and found out that they were only holding one Mass, and it was while we were at work. Seriously, guys - what kind of church only has one Mass on Ash Wednesday? That was disappointing, but I am trying to keep a positive attitude this year for Lent (or, at least, keep more of my complaints to myself). Hopefully we will start to get some warmer weather soon now that March is on its way.

If not...there is always skiing. And Game of Thrones.