RR: Random Ramblings

1. Peter teacher has been here for a week and one day! It has been the greatest week and one day ever! The kids love him, the staff loves him, and it's just been great! Love it.

2. King class Peter left :( sad day for me. Loved that kid. His family moved too far away to make the commute everyday to school. Le sigh.

3. Our end of the year performance has been pushed back a week to February 15th, which is great! The whole entire school has been working uber hard on this the past week and one day! Every free moment has been dedicated to rehearsing dramas, speeches, and songs. Today the boss lady sat in with me for Elephant's drama and King's speeches. It didn't go too bad. I was impressed. The kids impressed me. They have come so far in the time that I've been here. :)

4. Boss asked me to stay on another year, I said "no" cos of the Italy cruise, then she said she'd give me 3 weeks off if I stayed for a year, then I said "ah shit, guess I'll think about it." Needless to say, I was obsessing over it for about a day. I've decided another year ain't gonna happen. I'm gonna cross my fingers and see if she'll let me stay til at least October/November. I doubt she will let me stay and still give me time off for the cruise, but we'll see.

5. Katie's dad came today! And this Wednesday-Friday we have no school because of the Lunar New Year! Exciting. Then we come back and have three weeks left with King and Robot then they move on to elementary school and then everyone moves up a floor. Scary/exciting. I'm gonna miss King and Robot a tremendous amount; I've become very attached to those kids.

6. Pretty sure that's it. Peace, love, and cookies.

Sarah, Cindy, and I on picture day!

Peter and I! <3

7.5 Months Down

It's been a month since my last post. Not a whole bunch of new stuff going on, I suppose.

The family visited for Christmas/New Years. The parents came on the 18th. We hung out for the weekend and waited for Sarah to get in. Unfortunately Sarah had some plane mishaps (surprise surprise, right?) and arrived, like, a day late. Not too bad. Parents and Sarah stayed up in Seoul for the later part of my last week before Winter Vacation. They got to go to the DMZ and did the Seoul City Tour and a bunch of other neat-o things while I got to work work work. Yay.

Mommy, Daddy, and Sarah at the DMZ

It was a pretty good week, the week before vacation, especially Christmas Eve! We had a party after lunch and didn't have to teach! That was exciting. And for our elementary classes, we watched Christmas movies and then had another party. I ate soooo much food. Ridiculous. It was a lot of fun though. I like the kids. They can be cool.

King and Robot partying it up on the Eve of Christmas

Elementary boys digging into our salsa we made.

I went up to Seoul on Christmas Eve and we spent Christmas Day wandering around this Korean village thing in Seoul. It was pretty cool. They had huge ice sculptures! After making our way back to the hotel to grab their belongings, we hopped on the subway for an 1.5 hour trip back to Ori. Once we arrived, we had our Christmas. We made chicken, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, stuffing, and bread from the best, Paris Baguette. It wasn't too shabby. Christmas was weird. It was our first Christmas not in the States or with the whole family. We weren't completely prepared, so I think it was a bit disappointing, but it was still very nice to be with family for the holidays.

Ice sculptures!

Famjam on Christmas

Christmas dinner.

We hung out and didn't do much on Sunday and Monday I went up to base to visit Nate. Then on Tuesday we rented a car and drove down to Busan. I didn't think it would take as long as it did, but I totally forgot to factor in the drivers here... But we got there safely and got to our nice love motel! It was like a castle! Pretty cool.

The ceiling of one of our rooms

Ow! Ow! Love Motels!

While we were in Busan we visited two temples and the famous Jagalchi Fish Market. We also spent a lot of time in Nampodong Market. Also visited Haeundae beach and market and ate at Fuzzy Navel Tacos (YUM!). It was a nice getaway from lil' ol' Bundang.

At Haedong Yonggungsa Temple

At Beomeosa Temple

Rents left on New Years and seester and I got to hang out for a week. We didn't do much because I am lame and was exhausted after work, but we got to watch a bunch of movies and play catch up. Love you, seester and sorry for being lame.

Other than that, there really isn't a lot going on here. Still waiting for Peter to get here. Still rustling around getting things done. Still trying to figure out my next step. I have about 4.5 months left here. Just enough time, I think. I'm going to miss KatieDale, for sure though. She's been a great friend to me.