Before you being your time abroad you may already be thinking about how you want to spend your time over spring break. Though I'm not saying these thoughts are bad, I do want to say that you need to refrain from making any plans before you know the exact dates of your breaks and other activities that will be planned for you throught the semester. Once you find out these dates you can let the planning commence. One will experience an overwhelming sense of joy when the realize the copious amount of possibilities for travel, but one may also feel that they can't fit in all of their choice destinations in such a short time. I regretfully have to say that both of these facts are a reality, but don't fright. All is well in wonderland. You will be able to go to most, if not all, of your destinations if weekends and money permit! A personal recommendation would be to choose two or three places that you wante to spend more time in and use those as your spring break destinations. For me those places were Barcelona, Amsterdam and London.

Once you have your destinations chosen you may being to ask around to other people in your program to see if anyone wishes to join you for part or all of your journey or to see if you want to join them in their's. Once you know where you want to go you need to book your plane tickets and hostels for the duration of your travels. One should do their best to book these no less than a month in advance to make sure that they get cheaper plane tickets and to ensure that one has a place to stay during their travels. Now, to pack for ones travels one needs to be conscious of a few important things, the number of souviners one plans to purchase, weight and size constraints of the airlines and toiletries. It is very important that one only packs a sufficient amount of supplies to last for the trip so as to leave ample space available to be filled with souviners and things of the like. Also, don't pack a set of clothing for every day, its ok if you wear the same stuff a few times. I personally would reccomend readying the number of items that you think you need and cutting that number in half.

Don't forget a pair of flipflops though, because its gauranteed that you won't want to shower barefoot in at least one of the places that you stay. Also, avoid using a suitcase if at all possible. Carrying a backpack makes traveling a lot easier, faster and quieter. Now in terms of execution of a successful spring break one needs to make sure that they have all of their boarding passes and hostel reservations printed, possibly with doubles. One also needs to be as punctual as possible so as to make sure that they don't miss any flights or busses if you are traveling by that method. And last but not least, you need to have fun during your travels because who knows when your going to have the chance to do this again?!I’d like to revise the opinions I shared in last month’s post about winter in Donghae. At the conclusion, I implied that winter here is a dull, vapid affair without enough struggle to inspire excitement or lust for life in the inhabitants. That was before this happened:

It began late last Thursday night. This picture was taken the following Monday. The snow stopped falling early Tuesday, then sprang up again Thursday and Friday. Donghae is sunk in over a meter of snow from a storm that has taken over the eastern coast of South Korea. Korean news articles even refer to it as the “snow bomb.”1 According to one of my co-teachers, Donghae only has a snowstorm like this every 6 or 7 years. 1 - “눈 폭탄”; thailand rejser backpacksee here – I’m pretty sure that’s Donghae in the article picture.nomin backpack veilance This week I was told we’d have classes as usual on Monday, followed by the graduation ceremony for the third-year students on Tuesday and office work the rest of the month. zeta backpack quiksilver

Even as I watched the snow collect over the weekend, I anticipated arriving at school by 8:30 as usual. The snow came up to my knees as I trekked down the street. I should have suspected something when I didn’t see any students. Perhaps they were starting late? In any case, the teachers are expected to be at school even when the students aren’t. As I approached the building, I saw some of the groundskeepers shoveling the walk outside the gate. The principal and vice principal were standing outside with shovels. ursuline backpackThey looked surprised to see me. targus - citygear backpack laptop case - black/yellow/grayAs it turns out, we weren’t supposed to start work until 10:00 that day. ewok backpack disneyland

Despite the snow, I’d made it to school around the usual time. I looked around the empty parking lot, where a single track had been cleared to the door. The teachers’ office wasn’t even open yet. There I was, a Minnesotan trapped in the snow while the heads of the school labored in the lot. I left my backpack in the administration office and grabbed a shovel. I’ve complained before about the way the ice doesn’t get cleared from the sidewalks in Korea. For that day, at least, I could put my muscle where my mouth is. I don’t want to know how many hours of my life I’ve spent clearing sidewalks of snow, but I know a thing or two about how to break up ice with a plastic shovel. When the other teachers arrived on the scene, I was shuffled back into the office. For the rest of the week as the snow came down, the male teachers gathered outside to clear the snow. Whenever there was an extra shovel outside the door, I picked it up and joined the others. Without any students to attend to, most of the staff went to work in the office.

The snow was so thick it blocked the roads, so the cafeteria staff couldn’t come in that day. You’ll never guess what they served for lunch: It was like a party. Someone bought a couple bags of grocery store kimchi to complement the ramen, and all the faculty lined up at the water machine to cook their noodles. There were so many of us that we ran out of hot water in the main office and had to go to another machine in the hall. The teachers in the office upstairs filled a pot to cook their noodles over a burner, as opposed to heating them in the Styrofoam bowls. The rest of us sat with our cup noodles at our desks. As the week progressed, the snow continued to pile up. With this much accumulation, it was hard to move through my own neighborhood, much less go downtown. The weather is keeping most of the locals off the road, but knowing what I do about driving in Korea, I can’t quite bring myself to walk in the street. Still, with all the snow I enjoy wandering town and viewing the landscape with fresh eyes.