6 month update

Well, shoot! Turns out I haven't updated here in 6 months. Also, my mom totally noticed as per her email which stated "UPDATE YOUR BLOG!" Alright! It's been a while so let's take this point by point.

School: Little Fox and I started off a little rough as they kept comparing me to the last Joshua-teacher. No problems with pay, thank goodness. I still do my happy dance when I see my bank account. Some wounds never heal, LOL.

My hours are FANTASTIC: MW 2-8:05, TR 2-6:15, F 2-7:10 and I start teaching at 2:40. My director and I have been doing Tuesday meetings where I come in at 1:30 and chat about each and EVERY class I have. The kids don't progress that much from week to week so it was getting pretty tedious. I've only got one truly terrible class and we finally had to switch me out for only once a week instead of 2. Now in our meetings we're watching training videos! It's super fun and totally not something that I should've seen first week instead of at six months. Okay, some stuff is informative like how the point chart is actually supposed to work, but I'm concentrating on how the instructor's shirt keeps changing during the same one video. He really enjoys horizontal stripes, not a good look on anyone!

Now everything is going great. My kids have calmed down, my 8 8-year old class has stopped giving me headaches from being so loud,. They just need to work on their high five skills! Director wants everyone to start reading books so portions of my class are now reading time, so I get to read too! The library sort of sprung up and it's like my childhood in there. I just finished Are You There God? It's Me Margaret and am currently on The Secret Garden. I like showing the kids and saying one day this could be you. 

 It's the week of my birthday, 87 years young! So we're having class parties. It's also sticker party days, where the kids get trinkety things for the stickers they've earned, so classes are getting interrupted anyway. 

Friends: I have amazing friends, enough said, LOL. Since it's Korea things are in a constant state of flux and people come and go. I "lost" the brother sister team of M+J for amazing new adventures and I'm super excited for what's in store for them. 

I have a great group of girls who I can gossip/bitch/eat ice cream and travel with. 

I have my nerdy boys who I can chat about comics and have them explain the origins of stuff to me. They're getting me into nerdy card games with too many rules and I listen to them talk about Star Wars video games and they don't mind I only watch Arrow for the shirtless exposition. 

Food: I said at the start of the blog, I really only like Korean BBQ. Well it's been expanded to Mandu-gu (dumpling soup), Haechandle Ssamjang (red soybean paste that goes with anything), various soups that I don't know the name of and... I think that's it for now. My friends and I have discovered AH-MAZING burger joints and the deliciousness of S. African cuisine. Those reviews will get posted soon. I also love seafood and now that M+J are gone we can INDULGE ourselves. I am actually sorry that they have serious food allergies. See my post about food delivery. I gotta add Gringos Korea to the list. They deliver supremely delicious burritos, salsa and bean dip (to die for) to your door! I've never really enjoyed burritos before until now. You gotta order by Thursday night and delivered on Tuesday. Yummers!

Travel: I only got 3 days of vacation this summer, I'm not bitter, just telling it like it is. So, I had a staycation where I took the red buses around and saw the sights in the air conditioned comforts of a bus because it's been TOO DAMN HOT. Like face melting, it's been great! I was starting to turn into my dad, with my sweat rags.
I'm planning a couple weekends away in the near future so get ready for hearing about them. So far I've been to Seonyudo Island where we camped under a porch the first night cause the hotels were full. Oops! We still had some much fun and made forever memories, LOL. New Hoboton forever! Took days trips to Eurwangni Beach (을왕리 해수욕장) out by Incheon Airport to get rays, get cocktails in a bag (cocktailsinabag, cocktailsinabag), eat seafood and get a tan! My kids never get the joke about me needing to get darker, sigh. I also wanna visit all these islands.

Home: It's amazing. It's the biggest one for me so far and a couch can fit! It's great, no complaints except for my dorm fridge. I enjoy that I live in Dosim rather than Guri, because it's just far enough away that I'm not out every night. Next time anyone saw me, I'd be 500 pounds of beer! 

Last thoughts: Phew, can't believe its been 6 months since I've got here. I'm having a great time and I'm riding my high. I'm eagerly awaiting the maybe/possible/almost definite visit of my mom in November. It would be really great to see her after only getting a week of family time last Christmas in California. 

I swear I'm gonna be more on top of this blog and get back to reading more. Let's see if I can do it!

Currently reading: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum. This is some dark s--t for a kids book, damn. People well creatures are getting straight up murdered all over the place. Also, those ruby slippers in the movie are supposed to be SILVER. What up with dat??? I also wanna be Dorothy for Halloween.

Listening to: Sara Bareilles, The Blessed Unrest.