K-pop Dance

I have been going to dance class 5 times a week for about a month and a half. It’s really fun and I am glad I get to do it every day during the week. I was in dance in America, but I only had class once a week. So I really like how in Korea they have classes every day. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I practice ballet, on Tuesday I practice Hip-Hop, and on Thursday I practice belly dancing. I like doing Hip-Hop the most.

My school is putting on a big recital at the end of this month. I was sad when they told my daddy that I wouldn’t be able to be in the recital because I was a new student and wouldn’t have time to learn all the dances well enough. But then last week the director called my daddy and told him that she saw me doing the Hip-Hop dance and was really impressed with how well I was doing it. So now they want me to be in the recital for the Hip-Hop dance!!! I’m so excited about it. 

My daddy found the songs I am dancing to on youtube so I can practice more at home. I found out that many Korean pop songs have special dance moves that go with the song. So a lot of the dance moves I am learning for these songs are the same moves they do in the video. 

Check out the k-pop videos below and dance with me!!! 

The Best Snow Day Ever

Happy Valentines Day everyone! I had a wonderfully snowy Valentines Day. It all started when my mommy woke-up and got out of the warm bed. When my mommy looked out of the window…she screamed “Aaahhhh!!!!” I suddenly woke up, jumped out of bed, and my feet hit the floor with a BAM! I ran to the window with my daddy. Then I screamed “AAHHH!! There’s snow falling!” My daddy and I hurried and got our snow clothes on so we could go play in it!

When we got outside my daddy and I saw thick snowflakes falling like crazy, and about three inches of snow on the ground. We ran to the soccer field next to our apartment building. There we played in the snow. First I made a snow ball so we could make a snowman. I rolled and rolled and rolled snow until it created the biggest snow ball I have ever made. I said “This snow ball is half my size!” Then we started on the middle one. We rolled and rolled until it was only a little smaller than the first one. Then, I said “All we have to do is the head.” After we made the head, I said “I am so excited to put it all together!”

Half way done with our first big snowball

My daddy said “How about we make a Mohawk on the snowman’s head?” I said “Oh sure!” It was very funny to create a punk rocker snowman. :) We made eyes, a nose and a mouth with sand, and then I found some sticks for the arms. When we were done the other people that were playing in the snow were very impressed, and they came over to take some pictures. My daddy told me that in Korea people usually make snowmen out of just 2 snowballs, and when I looked around I noticed that we had the only 3 snowball snowman. I think that is why they liked ours so much. Then I jumped into the snow and made a snow angel.

Finally finished with our punk rock snowman! Isn't he cute :-)

I let him borrow my scarf to help him keep warm.

I love making snow-angels.

One interesting thing I noticed was that a lot of the locals had umbrellas. I have never seen people in America do that while it is snowing. I think it’s a good idea though because it keeps the snow off of you. That way you won’t be all wet once the snow melts, like my daddy and I were when we finally went back inside.

Locals with their umbrellas

After a break I sat down in the snow and threw like a billion snowballs at my daddy and he threw some at me. Then we decided to head home because we were covered in snow, our hands and feet were freezing, and the snow was now about five inches high. This was the best Jangyu snow day we have had all winter! It’s a fact that Jangyu usually doesn’t get snow so I was very happy that I had a chance to play in some snow!

While I was writing this my daddy told me that he just read in the news that in the northern part of South Korea they had the most snowfall in 100 years. They had over 39 inches. Wowzers! That’s a lot of snow. Here’s a link to that news story. There is even a couple videos in that link too :D

To see the rest of the pictures we took click on the photo tab at the top of the page and check out the photo gallery called "The Best Snow Day Ever."

My Awesome New Phone

Can you imagine getting a phone for free and when you are 7! Well guess what! I got a phone for free and I am 7! It all started when I went to our Korean friend’s Hey Suk’s house. While I was playing, BAM she offered me her old phone. She said “You can have my touch screen Samsung phone.” “It is really nice.” “You can watch live Korean TV, listen to radio, use the English – Korean dictionary, make video calls, play games, take pictures, and listen to mp3s and video record things.” I responded with a big “YES!!!!”  

My new phone is better than my mommy’s and daddy’s so they both really want it! I always say NO!  

We had to take it to a phone store to set it up with service. For the basic plan it costs 12,000 won (about $12) a month. The registration fee was 24,000 won (about $24). I have to pay for all outgoing phone calls I make and text I send. Korean phone companies charge in 10 second increments and a minute cost about 10 cents. I think a text cost 20 cent, but I’m not sure. It’s nice that they charge in 10 second increments since I won’t use the phone much.  Best of all is that incoming calls and texts are free!

Some Korean variety show I was watching. In Korean every phone has
 whats called DMB which allows you to watch live TV

Before we left the store, the worker gave me a piggy phone holder. It is really cute. It’s all pink and it has little cute arms and feet. It also has a cute little smiley face. I love my new phone and holder!

Freezing Fun in Hwacheon

Good luck kiss from the Sancheoneo (Mountain Trout).

One cold January weekend, my mom, dad, our friend Steve, and I bundled up for an ice festival in Hwacheon, which is in northern Gangwon province. It is high in the mountains and close to the DMZ. We drove through many towns and mountains that were beautiful. Then we finally arrived. We thought we were early because there was no one around. We found out later that it was canceled, but we made the best of it. As we explored we found a frozen river with some people playing on it. We found a place where we could borrow a sled that had a rope attached to it so someone can pull you. You could also borrow ice picks so that you can push yourself along the ice (I liked pushing myself but my mommy was too scared to let me, she was afraid I would poke my eye out… *sign* Moms).  I had a great time playing and sledding on the river. Check out the video below of some of my cool sliding.



Then we checked out the surrounding area. Along the river there were ice sculptures that were bigger than a small house. My mommy took pictures of daddy and me as we climbed all over them. Climbing on them was so fun and scary. I almost gave my dad a heart attack. The ice was freezing cold too! 

They don't look that big from here, but these were about 2 stories tall

I look so small next to these snow sculptures.

On the nose of one of the characters

The next thing we did was go inside a big snow fort. The first thing we saw in the fort was a bunch of different colored lights in a long tunnel made of ice. It looked really beautiful and was really fun walking through an ice rainbow tunnel. 

The big snow fort with the cool lit up ice tunnel inside

Inside the ice tunnel

Later, we left the river and found an ice sculpture park. When we walked in the first big room we saw a beautiful walkway that was decorated in color changing lights. There were lights everywhere and they were all changing and flashing in cool patterns. It was like a neon winter wonderland. We stayed in there for a while because it was so neat.

The weird but cool neon, light up room

Then we walked through that cool looking room and then out into the courtyard. The courtyard had many ice sculptures that were as big as a living room. Some I liked were: a Smurf house, a boy and girl getting married, a humongous cake, a pea pod, and a giant frozen water mill.

The smurf house, cake, water mill.

The enormous frozen water mill

I enjoyed the day, however I would have liked to do the other activates this festival usually offers. Since the festival was canceled I wasn’t able to do the sledding down big hills, ice fishing with my bare hands, or eat some of the special mountain trout that live in the river in that area. Hopefully next year the festival will be in full swing and I will be able to do all the extra fun stuff.

Click me for more info on the Hwacheon Sancheoneo (Mountain Trout) Ice Festival 

Tim Tam Slam

A couple weeks ago we went to the Costco in Pusan. While there we found Tim Tams. I have never heard of Tim Tams but my dad had and said we had to buy some. He said there is a trick to eating them so right away I wanted to try it, he didn't even have to mention chocolate...but that was a plus too :) Anyway, this is my first video and my first Tim Tam Slam. BTW, Tim Tams are amazing!

Check out this link to find out more about Tim Tams.

Fun Times at Hapkido

I have been practicing Kuk Sool Won Hapkido for a month now. I’m doing great at it *^.^*

I used to do Karate every day after school! It was really fun, and I was halfway to my black belt when I stopped doing it to move to Korea. I missed doing Karate a lot and wanted to keep doing it when I got to Korea. However, when I got here I found out that there are no Karate places around our area, because Korea has a bunch of their own styles of martial arts. So I figured that since I am in Korea, I’d better learn a Korean style. So my daddy and I found a place that teaches Kuk Sool Won Hapkido, which is a combination of a few different traditional Korean fighting styles.

Click here to check out some cool stuff about what I will learn in Kuk Sool Won.

The instructor and other students don’t speak very much English, but there are a couple students that can speak enough to translate important things to us. Even though the instructor doesn’t speak English, he does a very good job at showing us how to do all the moves, and making sure we are doing them right.

I am by far the youngest in our class. Most of the students (except my dad, another adult, and I) are middle school and high school students. Even though they are much older than I am, I still have lots of fun with them. They run around and play with me, and let me use them as human punching bags. I am learning flips, cartwheels, high spinning kicks, breathing techniques, falling techniques, and a bunch of other fun stuff. The main thing that I am learning and practicing a lot is the basic formation called Ki Cho Hyung. Check out the video of it below.



This is the basic formation that I have to learn to go beyond a white belt. It’s really hard to do, but I know I can eventually remember it all with enough practice. I can’t wait to be able to do it all perfectly, because it is really fun to do and looks cool.

My Fun Trip to Homeplus

The other day we drove to Homeplus, which is a big department store in Gimhae. I played in the play area inside Homeplus. In the play area they have slides, spinney things you can spin around on, a ball pit, a rock climbing wall, puzzles, and a bunch of tunnels to crawl around in. No one spoke English to me, although some people talked to me in Korean. I said “Anyeong” which means “Hi” in Korean. In Hangul (Korean writing) it looks like this “안녕.” When they said something else I couldn’t understand them, so I said “Mullayo” (몰라요) which means “I don’t know.” They gave me a funny look and then ran off and played. Nobody played with me for very long, but that’s ok because I still had lots of fun. Then my daddy came and got me and we found mommy and finished up shopping.

After we were done shopping we all were hungry, so we grabbed some snacks to share. Inside Homeplus there is a stand that sells really yummy waffles, so my mommy and I begged daddy to buy us some waffles. The waffles in Korea are different than back home. In Korea they put this fluffy white cream on half of it, and sweet apple honey syrup on the other half, and then fold it together. It is one of my favorite treats so far in Korea. My mommy got a ham and cheese crepe wrap. Mmmm mmm they were good. Then we went to Brainstorm. Brainstorm is our car. She is silver, and we can fit up to 7 people in it. We packed up our groceries and then drove back home to our apartment. I had a great day!