So, this week is the first week that students are back, but it's not a normal week. I will never fully understand how the school schedule in Korea goes but I'm not too concerned as it benefits me more than otherwise. This week I've actually only taught one class, so I've pretty much had the week to do as I please and that has consisted of getting caught up on my TV shows (House, Big Bang Theory), FB, reading, etc. I believe next week is similar to this week but I'm not really sure. I believe the students will be here until Wednesday, where the 6th graders will graduate. Then I'll have two days of desk warming to finish off the week. This, I think, is followed by two weeks of more desk warming before we start the new school year. All I know is that I need to pick up some new books to bring with me to school to stay busy.
One good thing that has come to fruition this week is that I will now be staying in my current apartment until I leave. I was going to be moving at the end of this month but for several reasons I now will not, I think. I'm relieved at this so I don't have to pack up twice in the next seven weeks, that's nice. One sort of bad thing about the apartment is that my heat comes is the where I have to buy the oil from the tank and evidently the price has doubled for winter time. So, I paid more for a half tank of oil (233,000 W) this week than I did for a full tank several months ago. Well, what are you going to do, I do need hot water for showers. The good thing is that it's starting to get warmer, so I'm hoping I don't have to turn the heat on as much as I did in January. Fingers crossed!
Right now is a frustrating time as it's not quite close enough to start planning a going away party or coming home party. However, I'm pretty set on having an old fashion BBQ at home for my birthday; with all the fixins' as we'd say. It's also frustrating trying to figure out what I'm going to do next. I'm suppose to find out next week about the Outward Bound position and I'm still waiting to hear back from SAGA in Alaska. Both would be amazing opportunities. I've also started looking at other opportunities such as vfp.org, work4travel.co.uk, WWOOF, and Help X among others. I'm seriously looking into hiking the Appalachian Trail if I don't have a job by the time I get home. It would be an amazing opportunity and I'd be able to hike portions with friends which would be an added bonus. I'm not really worried about having something set up. There's plenty of opportunities out there and as long I find a way to continue traversing the world I'll be content.
This week, even though I've really done little was a bit tough to get back into the routine with not having students for so long and being on vacation basically the past three weeks. I really enjoyed the break and it was much needed. It was great fun spending a couple Tuesday's in Itaewon for wing night, especially the past with running into Dorian as he has gone home to South Africa. I was also able to spend two awesome weekends at Sungwoo Resort snow boarding with Andrew and other friends. I'm definitely hooked and can't wait to board again soon. I don't like to brag but I'm pretty awesome for someone that's only been twice. Watch out! I spent the majority of my vacation just hanging out with everyone, going to parties, and just enjoying life in general; although warmer weather would have been nicer!
I'm really going to have to stretch the budget this month as I really need to apply for my Chinese visa, which will run me 195,000 Won since I'm American. That in addition to dropping 1,000,000 Won to my dentist will make for an interesting month, but I always get by so I'm not too worried. Also in the next month I'm running two more 10 K's which I'm pretty excited about. The bad thing about my vacation is that I also took a vaca from working out and I could really tell yesterday while running. I'm not terribly out of shape as it's more I'm mentally out of shape. was able to get a couple workouts in this week. Hopefully I can get back on track in a few days as the next 10 K is only about two weeks away. When I leave Korea I can definitely say I left a foot print while here as i will have completed a 1/2 Marathon and four 10k's!
This weekend is setting up to be one exciting weekend. I'm heading to Hanam tonight to chill with the fellas and then we have the Hanam Open tomorrow evening in Cheonho. We're splitting into teams and basically having a pub crawl. We'll visit nine pubs where we'll all down a 500ml beer, then quickly move on to the next pub. How many gulps it takes to finish your drink is your strokes, and just like in golf, the lower the better. My glorious name for this event is Boo Weekly! After this crazy event, there's a going away party for another friend in Hongdae and I'm thinking about trying to make it to see Hannah off to Austrailia. Finally, to finish off the weekend, my basketball team is in the Championship game on Sunday. I really hope we win and bring home the title. It's been such a great experience playing with these guys, especially Aaron, he's a cool guy and the only other foreigner on the team.Well, I'm going to check and see if the latest episode of Big Bang Theory has loaded. Will surely have interesting stories to upload soon! 'Til then, take care.
