Another month, another adventure

Wow! It's been nearly a month since my last post. Sorry to say there isn't too much excitement to report, but I will report what excitement I've had.

The weekend after Busan I traveled with a group of people from Iksan to Geoje Island to visit our friend Greg who lives there. On the way there the person who was driving took me through some beautiful country side in Korea. When I say breathtaking views, I mean my breath was literally taken away! One particular view was of a man made lake carved in the center of a valley. The water was nearly turquoise blue and the hills were green and thick with trees. Oh man, words cannot describe!

Here's a pretty terrible shot of the lake I described above.


When we arrived in Geoje we went to the rooftop of Greg's apartment for box wine (gotta love Franzia), imported cheeses and good times. Greg is a photographer so while we were up there we took a few good shots. I also had the opportunity to eat some amazing Thai food and Greg's World Famous Sourdough Pancakes.

Here's the view from the top of Greg's apartment, AMAZING!


We also took a few fun pictures I think are cool. I had no idea I could kick that high!



The past couple of weekends after that I have stayed in Iksan doing a little exploring on bike and on foot with Stormy. We rode our bikes for four hours one day just riding around, doing a little shopping and looking for good times. That night we had a picnic on my rooftop, which does not have view that Greg's rooftop does, but hey, it works.

Last weekend was Brian's 23rd birthday! We took the week to try and celebrate. We had good times dancing and eating ice cream cake.

Brian said he was going to wear a suit so Stormy and I took the opportunity to dress up!


Here's the ice cream cake we got for Brian! It was yummy!



Brandon and Kim bought a "Pimp" hat for Brian for his birthday...it's essential


As for my classes, this week there are no adult classes but we have been doing interviews for the next semester. I was accidentally late on the first day of interviews. Su Min, a guy that works in the office called me at 9:15 (I was supposed to be there at 9:00am) and asked where I was. I had just bought a cute new dress, so I knew just what to wear and my hair was a hot mess, but I made it work only to walk outside and see that it was raining...YAY! There was no time to think or change so I rode my bike in the soaking rain as fast as I could all the way to school. I arrived at 9:40 and proceeded to do 35 interviews. The past two days other teachers have been doing interviews and have only had about 10 interviews all day... I wonder why I was so lucky?!

My kids classes are rolling along better than ever! THANK GOD FOR THE STAR SYSTEM! I give them a star everyday for having their book, pencil and homework. If they misbehave stars are taken away. At the end of the week the stars are counted and whoever has the most gets stickers or candy! I didn't think it would have the impact on my classes that it has, but they are like little crazy angels! LOVE IT!

Magic Time has become quite a breeze since the implementation of the star system! They finally listen to me and I spend a lot more time teaching rather than trying to correct behavior issues. I give them one warning, then they lose a star. Who knew it could work so well?

In August I actually volunteered to take on an intensive kids course where I will be teaching the same group of kids for 3 hours...yeah, I said it, 3 HOURS! It will be fun and I can't wait to blog about them.

I will take pictures of my classes this week and upload them so that you may all see the amazing kids I get paid to hang out with!