Rainy days...

Things here are continuing as usual. We are finishing up our first semester of Avalon and diving into the next one in about a week. We are in the middle of our parent-teacher-translator meetings; the first one that us foreign teachers have partaken in. It's a good experience for me but It also reminds me that I am an extreme amateur at teaching...what do you expect though when I majored in Music and a German....hmm


I've been filling my weekends with sports and hanging out with friends in Seoul. Time continue to flies by...Soccer is going well. It's always a good time to play on the great gravel "fields" (and if we are lucky we can get field without too many potholes :) Actually we've been playing on some turf which is pretty fun. Rock climbing is going well also. I definitely need to work on my balance and strengthening my grip but it's coming along slowly. I tore up my hands this past weekend but no pain no gain right?...:)

There was a fun market right outside our apartment this past week. There were tons of stalls to buy food/spatulas/fish/yup...everything you need to survive in Korea :)

This past weekend there were some celebrations for Buddha's birthday (that is actually today). I was able to check out the Lotus Lantern Parade which was pretty fun and saw some cool sites in Seoul. Seoul continues to surprise me...


I had my taekwondo competition a couple weeks ago and have yet to find out if I received my black belt. It was one of the shortest tests I've taken. It must have lasted about 2 minutes...okay maybe like 5, but regardless, it was really really short. I had to spar for about 30 sec. and perform 2 pumsae's (a combination of about 15-20 punches and kicks) and do some other kicking (of which I didn't understand the commands and so I kind of messed that up...yup...) It was fun though and I'm glad I did it. When I was sparing, one of the refs was saying something to me in Korean and I just have him my confused look...it's a common look...
(The pic to the bottom is me with my sparring gear...:)

The weather is so rainy these days which can be nice but defintely plays a role on your mood.. The mosquitos have officially began to attack me though. The other night I ended up with about 5 bites from this one darn mosquito...oi. I can't escape them...

I guess nothing else too new has been happening. I'm just rollin with the punches and still trying to figure out what I'm going to do when I'm done.

My sister is also coming out in a couple weeks so I'm definitely looking forward to that! What a better place to chill with the sis :) I still dont' know what travel plans we'll be partaking off, but we'll figure it out.

I'm still trying to learn Korean on my own which is hard but I'm making slow but steady progress. The self-motivation is going surprisingly well...some days better than others for sure. The korean teachers that sit beside me have been extremely helpful. Great people.

oh ajummas...

The joys of Korea continue to appear.. i love it. God is continuing to show me His love and awesomeness. Let's see, over the past couple weeks the weather has been warming up with no signs of mosquitoes ....yet...(crossing my fingers). I hear they are brutal here in the summer. Not excited...they seem to love the asian blood..or something like that :) It's great to wake up to a sunny morning and some "fresh" air...maybe fresh smog would be more applicable...get some reading or soccer in before the school day starts...

Ever since the rock climbing trip I have been interested in getting into it a little more, therefore I bought some climbing gear last weekend :) yay! (Go big or go home right? ;) I met some Koreans a couple weeks ago at an outdoor climbing facility, so they have been coaching me. Good times. There's a lot I need to work on, but it's been fun so far :)

Last weekend there was a huge festival in Seoul so I checked out that scene. My roommate and I were able to see some musicians...yup not the greatest music....but it was nevertheless
fun :) We also saw some fireworks and b-boyz (break dancers..pic above) good stuff. There was also some traditional music and performances I was able to check out. I love it!

This past weekend my other roommate and I went on a hiking trip with Ad. Korea.

We went down South and did some good hiking and checked out some festivities down there. It was nice to get away from Bupyeong for the weekend, meet some new people, and most importantly, to be back in the great outdoors; see some real green grass/hear birds/smell the trees....ahhh....not deal with the pushy Ajummas oi...(ajummas are women over the age of like 35ish...pushy little gals...)

(pic to the left..sunset 2 nights ago in the mountains....after our crew got lost...long story) :)

The weather is continuing to warm up and there continues to be an increase of 'exercising' machines outside our apartment...possibly a subtle hint...these machines more or less are twisting and swinging machines...i haven't quite figured out what their purpose is....hmm

I guess that's about it for my main adventures over the past couple weeks. Time continues to fly by...the students continue to get more and more energy with the weather warming up and all. Hope you all have a lovely week!