Thanks so much to every one who sent birthday wishes and e-cards. (and I even got one card in the mail from Arizona!) I can truly say that it was one of the most strange and wonderful birthdays I have ever had.
My Korean supervisors, Mr. Lim and Ms. Noh, got me a cake at work on Friday and sang Happy Birthday to me in Korean. I wish I had gotten it on video- but it was great nonetheless. My fellow
teachers and I met up here at the residence after work for pizza and MORE cake. It was really sweet that they all came to celebrate with me. A few of us went out to hit the town and visited a few different places. We went to a bar here in the Hyatt which was so ridiculously overpriced that we decided to head out to something a little more our speed. We went to another bar and ended the night in a Karaoke room. It was a lot of fun and I have video to prove it. (no, I am not posting it)
The next day we headed out to see how the Koreans celebrate St.
Patrick's Day. As you can guess, there weren't a lot of people out for the celebration. There was some live music and some Irish food- but not a lot else to see or do. We decided to at least wait for the parade. It was about 5 minutes long with about 7 groups marching in it. We did see the US Marines Band playing and the Korean Harley Davidson association. We left there and went home for a much deserved nap.
Sunday, Jenn, Jess, Gail and I went to Gyeongbok Palace to finally see something other than cars and buildings. The palace was built by the last dynasty in Korea, the Jeonsun. Really neat architecture, but very sparse. I think my favorite Korean invention is the heated floors. Even back hundreds of years ago, they built fireplaces underneath the buildings to heat the stone floors. Really smart. Anyway- the Queen had a really isolated existence and was only visited by the King maybe twice a month. (when he wasn't visiting his concubines) Who says the Queen has it all? We spent a couple of hours there and then Jenn and I went to visit one of the largest churches here in Seoul for their English service. It was really good and I would love to go back.
This week in training has been uneventful. We are finished with the editing of the textbook they will be using in Korea next year for English education and will now be able to focus on developing our own lesson plans for the year. We are scheduled to begin camp on May 6, but it will depend on whether or not the construction is completed in time. We have started to get an idea of our schedule at camp with the kids and some of the activities we will be doing with them. I am so excited. I think I really lucked out with this assignment. Who wouldn't want to spend a year at camp?
Other than that- life grinds along. We had another teacher join us this week, Joel from Vancouver. We are still awaiting 4 more teachers. Not sure when they will arrive. Our team works quite well together and we are all getting along well (so far).
Keep the emails coming...I love to hear from everyone. Thanks for the continued prayer as well.
My Korean supervisors, Mr. Lim and Ms. Noh, got me a cake at work on Friday and sang Happy Birthday to me in Korean. I wish I had gotten it on video- but it was great nonetheless. My fellow
teachers and I met up here at the residence after work for pizza and MORE cake. It was really sweet that they all came to celebrate with me. A few of us went out to hit the town and visited a few different places. We went to a bar here in the Hyatt which was so ridiculously overpriced that we decided to head out to something a little more our speed. We went to another bar and ended the night in a Karaoke room. It was a lot of fun and I have video to prove it. (no, I am not posting it)The next day we headed out to see how the Koreans celebrate St.
Patrick's Day. As you can guess, there weren't a lot of people out for the celebration. There was some live music and some Irish food- but not a lot else to see or do. We decided to at least wait for the parade. It was about 5 minutes long with about 7 groups marching in it. We did see the US Marines Band playing and the Korean Harley Davidson association. We left there and went home for a much deserved nap.
Sunday, Jenn, Jess, Gail and I went to Gyeongbok Palace to finally see something other than cars and buildings. The palace was built by the last dynasty in Korea, the Jeonsun. Really neat architecture, but very sparse. I think my favorite Korean invention is the heated floors. Even back hundreds of years ago, they built fireplaces underneath the buildings to heat the stone floors. Really smart. Anyway- the Queen had a really isolated existence and was only visited by the King maybe twice a month. (when he wasn't visiting his concubines) Who says the Queen has it all? We spent a couple of hours there and then Jenn and I went to visit one of the largest churches here in Seoul for their English service. It was really good and I would love to go back.This week in training has been uneventful. We are finished with the editing of the textbook they will be using in Korea next year for English education and will now be able to focus on developing our own lesson plans for the year. We are scheduled to begin camp on May 6, but it will depend on whether or not the construction is completed in time. We have started to get an idea of our schedule at camp with the kids and some of the activities we will be doing with them. I am so excited. I think I really lucked out with this assignment. Who wouldn't want to spend a year at camp?
Other than that- life grinds along. We had another teacher join us this week, Joel from Vancouver. We are still awaiting 4 more teachers. Not sure when they will arrive. Our team works quite well together and we are all getting along well (so far).
Keep the emails coming...I love to hear from everyone. Thanks for the continued prayer as well.
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