When did time escape me? - Living in Another Language

Im blown away at how fast the weeks are flying by. Last time I checked, it was the beginning of April, and now we’re sitting a week and a half out of May! The weeks really have been blurring together…wake up, go to class, come home, make dinner, sleep…and start the process over and over again. Thankfully it really hasn’t become tiring or boring. How can life become boring when kids are involved? We have had our days when you just wanna make the kids run a mile or two before class…or during. Barely over a week ago I lost my voice…and that’s always interesting with a classroom full of screaming Kindergarten children that don’t understand what you’re saying anyway. I swear they took full advantage of it.

Believe it or not, I am STILL suffering from sickness. I think I had 2 days of full health before I got this. I am currently coughing like a crazy woman…(how do crazy women cough?)…and trying to breathe correctly through my nose and mouth. We’re really starting to think it may be the mold in our house. We were offered a different place to stay, but it was a very, very, small studio apartment…so we decided to stick out the mold. We have plans of ordering an air-purifier as well as a dehumidifier.

Even though I’ve been sick lately, I’ve taken up working out again!!! I’ve been missing the gym with a passion…it was a major form of stress release back in the States. I started the Insanity Workout…of which I can do in the comfort of my own home (I’m so sorry for the people that live below us). Its a pretty intense workout involving a lot of jumping, squats, pushups, and lunges. The first couple days I thought I was literally going to die. I could hardly walk the next few days. Even though I still get pretty sore, I can definitely tell I’ve gotten a lot stronger, and i’ve been building up my endurance. It’s a 60 day program with about 14 different video workouts. I am on day 10…but may continue the program until Bali!

We just bought plane tickets for our 9 day summer vacation to Bali! We’re pretty excited…going to take full advantage of the beaches, crazy resort prices, beautiful temples….can it be vacation now?

Even though the past few weeks have been blurred together, we have spent the weekends enjoying the amazing spring weather. The first weekend in April we traveled up to Busan…went to COSTCO (yes costco…and it was as glorious as it sounds…even though they didn’t have as much American food as I would have hoped), then traveled to Jinhae to participate in the Cherry Blossom Festival. It was ridiculously crowded…I felt like I couldn’t even take that many pictures do to my fear of being swallowed up in the crowd…and being separated from my party. I’ve never seen so many people taking pictures of themselves. Then again, I’ve never seen so many people take pictures of themselves or look at themselves with their phone period…until I moved to Korea. They’re all about it here. Anyway….the Cherry Blossom Festival was very beautiful, rows upon rows of cherry blossoms, lots of food, and neat craft tents. We also discovered beondegi. Beondegi is something that should never, ever, have been made into a food. Its basically fried silk worm cocoon, and it smells absolutely terrible. I wish I could explain to you what it smelled like, but I cant. The kids here eat it like candy. I don’t understand how they can think cocoon’s are good, but to each his own.

Last weekend the weather was so nice (sunny and 65) we had a bonfire on the beach on Saturday, and cooked hot dogs we bought at costco. Thankfully the mosquitos weren’t out too bad, so we didn’t suffer. Sunday we went on an afternoon hike/climb up Azalea Mountain. I don’t know the actual name of it, but that’s what everyone calls it….and that’s literally what it is. You hike up for quite a while, and then you literally make one turn, the trees clear out, and in their place are tons and tons of bright purple flowers. It was so gorgeous! There were, once again, lots and lots of people…which made it difficult when we were climbing up the narrow path that led to the mountain summit. But we made it there and back with nothing but great pictures, a little bit of a farmers tan, and sore muscles.

We don’t have anything crazy to do this weekend,maybe have a picnic on the beach if it’s nice, but the weekend after that (it’s a 3 day weekend), we’re traveling up to Seoul! We’re expecting a great adventure filled with sight-seeing, food, and CLOTHES SHOPPING! They have a H&M as well as a Forever 21 in Seoul. I know that doesn’t sound like much to most people…but going 2 months without shopping can literally kill a girl. Chelsea and I have been looking forward to this trip for about a month now.

Well, that’s about it in a nutshell…below are several pictures from both the Cherry Blossom Festival and Azalea Mountain. Enjoy!

CHERRY BLOSSOM FESTIVAL:

When we first got the the festival…of course the guys would find the photo tent.