Busy and hot

Sorry I haven't updated this week. The summer English camp I'm working is 100% outdoors and leaves me 100% exhausted at the end of the day. Check back next Wednesday for a big update.

English Summer Camp

Today was my first day teaching at the mystery English Summer Camp I've been hearing so much about yet given so few details on. For one thing, it's outdoors. No, I mean the classes are outdoors. Under big tents, like the ones at funerals. And there are rock fortifications everywhere (see picture). I don't know why they're there, but they make the grounds look like Gettysburg. Anyway, I'm so thankful that I have my guitar, because the students are way too distracted by the insects, being outside in general, etc, to pay attention to any real lessons.

Cute student letters.

In Korea, it's tradition for the students to write letters to their teachers at the end of the semester. Here are some of the ones that made me smile.

This is just about the cutest thing ever.

This made my day. Such a great song.

Happy Birthday to me....

I celebrated my first birthday in Korea today with my co-teacher at Hogye Middle School. We went to this buffet called Marché, which was pretty good. I hadn't been to a buffet in a while and I was stunned at how little I could eat compared to the good old days.



Anyway, this past weekend I had a mini celebration with Lily at a nice samgyeopsal restaurant, and we had a good time at the noraebang after that.



Today was my last day at Gangdong Middle School. It's hard to believe in two weeks I'll have been in Korea for a year. I was a little bit sad to leave some of my students there, but there were a lot of problems with the curriculum and the schedule of my coteacher that were not going to be overcome. I hope to be placed at Yeonam Elementary School on Mondays next semester, while continuing at Yeonam Middle School Tuesday-Friday. Here's a shot of me and some of my students.


These students were the "nickname club." They gave each other English nicknames. From the left: E.T., Unicorn, Beaver, Dolphin. They nicknamed me "Teddy Bear."

I managed to lock myself out of my apartment tonight. Not out of the front door, out of my bedroom. I had the door closed to keep the AC only in there, and when I left to get something, I closed the locked door behind me. How the door got locked in the first place, I have no idea. At first I thought it would be no problem, just go upstairs to where the owner lived, and get the key. Turns out, the owner doesn't even have the key to the inside door locks. How does that even happen? I sure didn't get that key when I moved in. Anyway, I had to wait about 45 minutes for the locksmith to come, and then I had to pay him $30, which compared to an American locksmith is nothing, but it's still $30 I'll never get back. Oh well.

I got a new fish today, a Siamese Fighting Fish. Check it out.

Cat Fight!

Dear Lord, cats are loud. When I first moved into my place here, I thought someone was actually torturing a cat here every night. However, walking home one night, I saw two cats just screaming at each other. I mean, not like hissing or loud meowing, screaming like they were on fire.

Other than the noise though, there was nothing going on. One was sitting on a brick fence and the other one was on the ground. I guess they're supposedly defending their territory, but why do they wait until nighttime to start screaming like banshees?