During my vacation I just hung out with some new friends and I went on a day trip to Dajeon with my friend Michaela. We went to the National Science Museum and Expo Park. It was great bonding and really interesting! Yeah I didn’t know what they had written since it was in Korean but she explained it to me and I could get an idea. There were some things in English so I understood a good amount. So I went to the Taeback Snow/Ice Festival in Gangwon-do which I highly recommend going to! It’s in January. It was amazing! They had huge ice sculptures made by university art students. They were crazy amazing! Actually before we went to the festival we went to explore the Yongyeon Cave: **It’s located along the lower part of the ridge of Gumdaebong peak, the pivot of Baekdudaegan. This cave is located at 930 meters above sea level, making it the highest in Korea. It has been designated as Gangwon Provinces Regional Monument No. 39, and has a total length of 843 meters. The limestone cave is full of a variety of stalagmites, stalactites, stone pillars, cave pearls, cave corals and others. There is also a spacious plaza 50 meters wide and 130 meters long, and a rhythm pond; all creating a mystic sight. Twelve kinds of animals live inside the cave, including bats and blind shrimp; adding to its mystic beauty. (words from www.adventurekorea.com)It was so awesome and HUGE. We wore a helmet and I was joking with the guy that gave me the helmet. I said, “So are we going digging for gold” HAHA! He smiled and laughed. Exploring the cave was about an hour. It was really cool. After that we went to the Snow Festival. I went sledding down this skinny hill, which was actually cool and a little scary. But of course they didn’t really have real hills like us snowy people are used to, to sled down the hill. Apparently there was an area where you can make a snowman. I was kinda bummed I missed out on that one! =( Oh well. They also had performers from Broadway Korean musicals, they were so good! After that we checked into our hostel and had dinner. I met some really cool down to earth people! The next day we got up early and hiked up the top of the beautiful summit of Baekdudaegan.  My GOD! Talk about exhausting! It was a really long hike. It took us two hours to get to the top then only an hour or a little more than an hour to come back down. But man oh man, Koreans are really into hiking. On the way down I’ve never seen so many hikers in my entire life. Good Lord! It was crazy! Man my body was sore. But I met a couple cool people on the way up the mountain halfway. This Cuban guy Lex, Adam and I got along real well and we were talking about some interesting trees that looked like Cauliflower! Haha! I was telling them how I missed sledding so they started joking with me about how I could be their sled. My hair could be the light (like Rudolph) and my coat was smooth enough where it would be a quick down the mountain. LOL!! I responded “oh no you didn’t!” Swaying my head side to side. Completely lighthearted/jokingly. Lex goes “I haven’t heard that in a while”. HAHA!  So now we have this joke nickname with me. I’m called LaSarah. There’s this video on youtube you have to look up, titled LaSarah. A blonde girl acting attitudinal. After hiking we had lunch then got on the bus back to Seoul.My next Adventure Korea trip is Museum without Walls in Gyeongju at the last weekend of February. I heard that trip is amazing! So I’m excited about that! What else is new? Hmmm my Hakwon just contracted with a big company so my schedule will be changing. I’ll be getting more students, and there’s a different textbook to follow in March. I’m a little nervous but I’m going for a training session with them this upcoming Monday and I’m getting a little raise which will help pay off bills and save money to travel to China and hoping to do a volunteer project for 2 weeks in Thailand or some place else when my contract ends. I really want to ride an elephant even though I’m gonna be afraid of heights. But I love elephants! They’re such beautiful creatures! I got my wisdom teeth removed here and that went pretty smoothly. My dentist gave me six shots of Novocain in my mouth and I couldn’t feel a thing. The only nerve-wrecking thing was the fact that it took him like 10 minutes to get my left wisdom tooth out. That sucker didn’t want to come out. He gave me meds and everything was fine. I sadly had to teach while I was recovering. But oh well. Must do what I must do. Valentines Day here isn’t a big deal for married couples but for the younger couples that aren’t married it’s bigger. Here on V-day the girls propose (a date this is) to the boys and give him chocolates or whatnot and then I believe the date in March is the 14th where they have the day where the boys propose to the girls. Sadly no date for me but I’m enjoying getting to know people. Meeting some really cool guys lately! Some of them are hilarious! =) But I just got dressed up and went out dancing with my friends. Actually I brought up the idea to my close gal friends to go see “He’s just not that into you” movie before we went out dancing. Being that we’re all single, why not right? When you go to the movies here by the way you get assigned seating. And on holidays if you want to go to the movies, it’s best to reserve seats and you have to pay ahead of time usually (due to the fact it’ll be busy. Also the school year starts in March. Graduations for the end of their grades is in February which was definitely a reaction of  “oh really? No kiddin”   I’m trying to start an Interfaith in Korea group going here. I really miss my interfaith gatherings in Cleveland, Ohio. I have a friend that practices Muslim faith here to get involved and try to get a Buddhist Monk, Jewish Rabbi, Catholic priest, and Muslim religious leader too. I apologize I can’t remember the name of the religious leader in Muslim practice. I’m trying to get people to help me recruit people interested. I had a Christian girl involved but sadly she said she wasn’t interested anymore. So sad! Who’s to say God doesn’t speak to us through other religious leaders?? We all have similar value system so why turn away knowledge? After all, knowledge is power and brings understanding through experience with God created as well.I’ve joined a hip-hop dance class 3 times a week at a dance studio. A place called EZ Dance Studio in Bundang at Ori Station exit 3. It’s awesome and very reasonable priced. Hip-hop is a lot harder then it looks. Phew! MY instructor teaches in Korean but a little English and we can understand each other when I don’t get something. But it’s awesome and I’m shaping my figure! Well that’s all for now. I can’t think of anything else to say but that I’ve been meeting more cool people! I’ve adopted a good friend from Northern Ireland. She’s really cool!