Photos by Kami Webb

Here are the pictures from the past couple of weeks that I got from Kami. Enjoy!

This is the crew that went skiing at Muju Resort...it was so pretty there!

Kami and I FREEEZING at the top of the mountain!
This is at our boss's relatives' house. They had an old traditional style home that was pretty neat.

Ruby and I on the Lunar New Year. Ruby was soooo precious in her Hanbok.

The family that welcomed us for New Years. It was such a good experience.

Kami and I got to try on some Hanboks. They are awesome. I totally want one!

Kami and I with our boss lady! She's lots of fun!

Our infamous shot...we have to take it everywhere!

Celebrating the Lunar New Year

As I wrap up my four-day weekend, I can't help but reflect back on how great the weekend was. Kami and I had the opportunity to join our boss's family for a traditional Lunar New Year. It was incredible. The Lunar New Year is one of the two most important holidays in Korea, so we knew it was a big deal to be invited to join our boss and his family.

We left Sunday morning to head to Jinju, the hometown of my boss that is about 30 minutes from here. When we arrived to his mother's house, the women started cooking immediately. The actually New Year day was Monday, but they like to prepare the food the day before. Kami and I helped as we could, battering some fish and beef and putting together some other things I don't know the name of. After the cooking was finished, we enjoyed a scrumptious lunch that was equivalent to pot roast and potatoes. It was soooo yummy! Later, Kami and I went to see Madagascar 2 with the kiddos. It was dubbed in Korean, but we still thought it was quite funny...what we could understand anyways. That night, we had a great time playing a Korean game with the family...so much fun. Everyone's competitive sides came out and that was funny to see!

Now Monday morning was quite interesting. The day started early...about 6:30...and by the time we got up, the older women were already in the kitchen, preparing all the food. For the Lunar New Year, Koreans have what we would call a memorial service. It's where they remember their relatives that have passed away. All the men got together to do some talking and bowing. It was neat to watch. After that, we went to the grave sites of the relatives and they did a bow to them and sprinkled Soju (Korean liquor) on their graves. Then, we went to another relatives house and had some lunch. It was quite a cultural day. There is definitely nothing that compares to this in the US. I mean, the only tradition I have for New Years is eating some black-eyed peas! Before we left, Kami and I got to put on a hangok, the traditional Korean dress. I really liked it...makes me want to get one! Ha. We'll see about that!

Overall, the weekend was quite amazing and such a good cultural experience. Kami and I are quite blessed to have bosses that invite us to partake in these sort of things. It's all about taking in the culture and gaining an appreciation for things. I definitely enjoyed the weekend. I didn't take many pictures, but here are the few I did take. I'll post more when Kami shares with me!

This is a huge wardrobe that our boss's mom had. It's really amazing. It's a traditional Korean thing...the decorations are all made from seashells. You can't even imagine how pretty it was.

Here is Sara (the director's wife) and her daughter Ruby...they are so precious! They are both wearing tradition Hanboks and look so cute!

Here is Sara working in the kitchen preparing the food for the day.

Our bosses' children, Tony and Ruby. They're such good kids.

That's all I have for now. Back to work tomorrow!

Muju Resort!

Yay for pictures to post! We did something fun this weekend! Yay! On Saturday, we left Tongyeong bright and early to head to Muju Resort...a huge ski resort in the mountains. Kami and I had decided before the trip not to ski, so with cameras in hand, we hit the slopes! Well, not really, but we did ride the nice gondola and took many pictures! Muju was quite nice...lots of snow and many, many people. We went with our bosses' family and while they enjoyed skiing and snowboarding, Kami and I enjoyed walking around and seeing the sights. Here are a few pictures from the day. I haven't gotten pics from photographer Kami yet, so here are my amateur shots! Oh, and yes, we did eat at Popeye's (picture 4)...yummy taste of home!

It's Been A While

Hello folks!


Sorry for the slight absence but not too much has been going on since our trip to Seoul. I've just been working and working some more. Our schedule at work was changed some due to the fact that the kiddos are on winter holiday here, so it took a few days to adjust. All is well now, though...have no fear!

Besides work, nothing really has happened really. I think that we are going to a ski resort on Saturday, though, so that will be fun. Kami and I have opted not to ski, but we will enjoy the good company, along with taking pics and seeing the pretty snow!


I haven't taken any pictures since Seoul, so I leave you with this photo. Ruby, our directors' daughter, drew this a while back. I thought it was a pretty good depiction of me! Ha.

Oh They Were Happy Holidays!!

Hello all!! Good to be back to the blogging world. It's been a while, I know, but I've been quite busy these last few weeks. The holidays were great and winter vacation in Seoul was awesome! We had lots of fun in Seoul and I took tons of pictures. For the sake of your eyes and my sanity, I'm only posting a few picture on here. If you want to see more, just go to my photo site. Here are the past couple weeks in a recap!

We had Christmas parties all day at school on Christmas Eve so it was quite fun!! The kids had lots of fun I think! Here is one of the cutest kids ever...his name is Ryan and I just think he is precious! Oh, and all the kids think they can't take a picture without doing the peace sign...don't ask me.

After work, our foreign teacher group got together for a Christmas party! It was so much fun. We watched Scrooged (which is a great movie, by the way) and played Chinese Christmas. We enjoyed hanging out and celebrating the holidays! Here is a picture of me and Steve...my Canadian co-worker!
On Christmas day, Kami and I journeyed to Asan to have Christmas with our fellow Texan, Amy. Amy's cousin came in from Seoul, and we enjoyed a delicious meal prepared by Amy and had lots of just hanging out. The next morning, we made our Christmas calls home and then headed to Seoul for the week! After checking into our hotel, we hit the town. Our first touristy thing was a tour of a palace that was near our hotel. It was a guided tour and it was quite cold out. It was really beautiful and amazing to think of the history there.
The thing that most people know about Seoul is that it was the home of the 1988 Olympics. Because of this, I was excited to see Olympic Park. It was much bigger than the one in Atlanta since most of the events were actually held in the vicinity (Atlanta's is more of a park to remember the Olympics). It was just crazy to think of the tons of people that were there in 1988...I can only imagine the chaos.

While we were in Seoul, I was feeling a little under the weather. Since Amy is amazing at speaking Korean, she went to the pharmacy with me to get me some meds. The pharmacist gave me some interesting things to take and Kami was there to capture it on camera. It was some grainy thing with pills and I had to wash it down with a ginseng drink...gross!!

Being in Seoul gave us the opprotunity to take the subway...many times! I love subways...so many people and so much people-watching to be done. Kami, Amy and I had a grand time on the subway!

Kami's uncle is friends with a bishop here at the largest Methodist church in Seoul. We went to the service and then had an amazing lunch with him. It was really great. I felt like we were dining with royalty. He was such a kind man and had so many amazing stories to share.

One of the highlights of the trip was to Lotte World...the Disney World of Seoul. It was sooo much fun. We had a day to release our inner child and we had lots of fun doing it! Half of the amusement park is inside and half is outside. We rode lots of rides and watched a parade and a show. We had so much fun!!

One of my new favorite things to do while traveling is to see the tv tower. I've done this in three capital cities now...Vilnius, Prague and Seoul. It was definitely at the top of the things I wanted to do in Seoul, so I was way excited when Kami and I went. The tower is on a hill, so after a 10-minute walk up a hill, we then took a cable car to the base of the tower and then rode the elevator to the top. It was a fun journey. I really enjoyed the view from the top...Seoul is much bigger when you're looking at it from the sky.

We rounded out our trip to Seoul with by ringing in 2009! Most of the foreign teachers from our town were also in Seoul, so it was great getting to hang out with them and celebrating the new year with our friends.

So the holidays were a success! It was nice to get away for a week and I came back feeling refreshed and happy! And of course I love being a tourist so I was very happy!! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and enjoyed whatever break you had from work. Have a great week! :)