The past few weeks have been rather busy at work getting ready for the kid's graduation presentation next Tuesday. Three of our classes are graduating (Apple, Orange, and Lemon), and moving on to elementary school. Some of these kids, though not as many as my boss had hoped, will be coming to EWAS in the afternoons now for 3-5 days a week. As much as I enjoy singing and dancing with my kids, the pressure put on both the teachers and the students in the past month has been rather unpleasant. The teachers are expected to determine which songs and stories the kids should memorize, and then choreograph the dances and practice with the students, while concurrently attempting to continue teaching the books the students have yet to complete. While I don't mind deciding which chapter from the book to memorize, or even assigning parts, I am not, nor have I ever been, a choreographer. Granted, I took ballet for quite a few years as a child, but extemporaneous dancing in my living room twenty years ago in a leotard while doing the laundry does not compare to full body movements and blocking for a group of eight 5-year olds and a group of nine 7-year olds, most of whom are still working on hand-eye coordination. You'd be surprised how hard it is to think of movements for a song like "I Just Called to Say I Love You". Thankfully my partner teacher did the motions for that one.
So we have just two more days with the older kids before they leave. This means that Wednesday through Friday of next week will be easier, as I'll have half as many classes in the morning. We're supposed to spend this time cleaning out the classrooms to get ready for the next year. The nice thing about starting a new year is that the schedules change. I'll be teaching Orange in March instead of Lemon, though I'm not sure which other class I'll have, since there won't be a Cherry next year (not enough baby kids signed up). I'll also be losing one class in the afternoons, so I'll only have one on Tuesday and Thursday (instead of two), and 4 MWF (instead of 5). It'll be really nice not to have to teach straight from 2:30-6:15 with no break anymore.
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This past weekend I visited with Dayna and her boyfriend, since she moved into Seoul and I haven't seen much of her lately. I went to Itaewon first to pick up a book I had ordered (Coraline - definitely looking forward to seeing the movie now) and to show my friend Chris where the store was. Chris and I then met Dayna and Hong in Itaewon for lunch at a Thai restaurant. During lunch Hong suggested that we go see a movie - specifically a Korean documentary with English subtitles about an 80-year old man and his ox. So we did. It was... interesting... though a bit repetitive. Afterwards Chris went to meet up with some of his friends in Gangnam for drinks, and I went with Dayna and Hong to do a bit of exploring around Meyongdong. We went to the large Catholic cathedral, which is beautiful at night, at which point I realized that I hadn't brought my camera with me.
After the cathedral we wandered around Meyongdong (which is in Seoul) looking for things to do. We ran across a street fortune teller, and Hong suggested I get my fortune read since he could translate what the person was saying for me. After asking me for my birthday, and examining my face and hands, he proceeded to tell me a lot of things I knew and a few things I didn't. He said I listen to, and believe, most of what I hear, which makes me susceptible to betrayal. Though I'm not nearly as gullible as I used to be, I still fall for things a bit more often than I would like. He also said that I shouldn't wear yellow or white, as it messes with my chi (or the Korean version of the chi). He said I should wear dark colors, like brown and deep purple. I like purple. At least, I've started liking it in the past 8 months. He also said that something changed me when I was about 20 years old, and I'm a different person now than I used to be. Now I'm a leader, and I used to be a follower. I can sort of see this (I started a group on Facebook for the ex-pats that live in Uijeongbu to make sure everyone knew where we were meeting each week for our dinners. Because of this, I've become the unofficial "leader" of the group, and certain non-vital decisions have begun to fall to me), though I still consider myself more of a follower. He also said that I shouldn't wear metal, as this messes with my chi, and checked my watch to see if there was metal on it (it passed inspection - I go for those cheap $7 Walmart plastic ones). He said I should take out my metal earrings as well. I thought about it, and later that night removed four of the five metal earrings I had in. My parents were highly pleased with this, and are probably wondering why they didn't send me to a fortune teller years ago and pay him to tell me that tattoos and piercings would mess with my chi and to stay far away from them. Nothing else was that noteworthy, other than the fact that when I'm 30, I won't envy anyone, and when I'm 50, even though I'll have plenty of money, I shouldn't lend it to anyone else. Oh yeah, and he said if I was approached by the media for a job I should take it because I'm creative and my personality would suit an on-camera personality.
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The forecast for today was a small chance of snow, and this afternoon we saw a few flakes before we left work. By the time I'd left my private lesson at 8:30, there was a thin covering of snow in some places, and in others it was melting. Snow still hasn't lost it's appeal to me - I still think it makes everything better. Kind of like a giant band-aid, or a hug from your mom. It also made me wonder about the chemistry of the streets and roads. Some parts of the sidewalk had a decent covering of snow, and some parts were completely melted. During the day n and the shade is.s sense because of where the sun and the shade is. But this was well after dark, and I couldn't see anything that would indicate a difference in the materials that would cause parts to melt and others not too. I suppose that's one of the many mysteries of Korea that I'll never know...
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I'm coming up on the end of my 9th month here in Korea. It really doesn't seem like I've been here that long, but I'm scheduled to come back home in just three short months. After all this mess with the graduations are over, I'm going to ask if I can stay an extra month and come home at the beginning of July instead of the beginning of June. Not that I wouldn't love to spend two whole months living in my parent's spare bedroom, but I'll still have bills to pay, and I won't be able to come back to Korea until August 1st. I'm just now starting to get a bit homesick. Not a lot, and mostly it's just because I haven't been able to see any of my family or friends back home. Skype has helped a bit, but I never realized how often I would travel home to see my parents or family. I've made some amazing life-long friends here, but nothing will ever replace the family I have back home. I'm one of the lucky few people I've ever known to have grown up in a loving, stable, healthy environment with parents who were able to prioritize and allow me to grow into my own person without letting me have the run-of-the-house. It wasn't idyllic, but I couldn't ask for anything better for my own future family.
I'm really looking forward to our family reunion cruise for a few reasons. One is it will make it a lot easier on me to see as many of my family members as possible before I come back to Korea. I'll have many of my relatives, some from out-of-state whom I rarely get to see as it is, all in one place. This way I won't have to try to travel to see any of them - we'll all be on the same boat (literally). I've also never been on a cruise before, and I've never been to the Bahamas. My passport expires in 2010, and I'll have to get a new one before I come back to Korea, so I'd like to get at least one more stamp in there before I retire it.
Me, Kathryn, and Chris at Mia's Bar
The police were out en-force this weekend. Apparently this area is where they hang out. I've seen them lined up with riot gear before, but never so many at once (this was just a few of them).
Monks eating at the table next to us at the vegetarian restaurant in Insadong.
A large white bird sculpture in a bakery. No reason. Just because. 
