break time

So it's Friday night again...and here I sit in my room contemplating the start of yet another three-day weekend (we have another holiday on Monday). Not that I have anything really planned at all, just the same old running around by myself that I usually do.

I am going to my Korean class tomorrow though, cause god knows I've been slacking on that far more than I'd like (I've only been to one class since actually coming here to Korea). I was going to maybe go hiking up that mountain that Josh and I hiked last weekend in the morning, but now that it's supposed to rain I don't know what I'm going to do. I do need to go get some things for school and for my room, so maybe I'll do that instead. I am also going to try to hunt down some organic foods markets I heard about; there's supposedly one in Gangnam called ORGA that's pretty big. I need to buy some whole wheat flour if they have it cause I am desperately wanting to bake something whole-grainy now that I've got an oven in this apartment. I tried baking some soda bread tonight but it wasn't as good as I'd like since I had to use icky all-purpose flour...bleh.

Anyway, this week was okay, especially since I got paid on Monday. It's nice not having to worry about money at all for once, and I make well over what I'd spend here in a month. The only expenses I do have are utitlities, bus/subway fare, the cost of my cable-internet, food & entertainment expenses. The rest I've been sending home to pay off bills and other stuff. So far, it's all been working really well. Kuddos to me. :)

Teaching is becoming easier and easier now that I've got a feel for what the kids are like and how a typical lesson should go. It's actually a lot simpler to fill 40 minutes of classtime than I thought it would be, and the day goes by in a flash. I really enjoy planning my lessons and thinking up fun stuff for the kids to do, and since I'm such a computer geek, I have been able to utilize that to design cute little worksheets and craft activities for them too. They seem to enjoy it...

So yeah, it kinda sucks not having anyone here I can hang out with at the moment, but I'm hoping maybe Amanda or Erin will be free and wanna do something this weekend. In the meantime, I'll find other things to keep myself busy. I just wish it would stop raining...

And in this edition I will be posting some pics of the kids that I took during their weekly bookmaking class. I design the books myself every week; it's actually pretty fun. I'm also posting some pics of that bread I made tonight as well as a few others I took while Josh was here. ;)

yummy soda bread

bread baking

the Rose A/B class during weekly bookmaking

the Lilly/Tulip class

this week's book: Connecting to the World

the Rosa A class (and Angela, my fav student there on the far left)

here's the entire kindergarten, taken during a birthday party last week


the view from the top of Mt. Dobongsan (one of the highest around Seoul)

the crazy people brave enough to climb up the boulder at the very tip top

traffic climbing up to the top

a PC-bang Josh and I went to

the Limelight club in Itaewon last Friday night

a band we saw in another bar in Itaewon that same night

Josh & I played a lot of Scrabble while he was here--check out who won this game...heh heh
Booyah! 132 baby!

the cake Josh bought me for my birthday (white cherry cake--very yum)

Check out that lovely Korean couple...
Wait a minute---that's us!!!

another palace Josh & I visited, this one called Gyeonghuigung Palace

more palace