It's a BOGO blog

The post I wrote last week got lost in cyber space, so this week it's two-for-one.

I: Can You Do It? YES, I CAN!

Last Sunday (9.9.07) my school held its first annual SLP Mini-Olympics, complete with opening ceremonies, pyrotechnics, half-baked family competitions, and prizes (Kleenex and kitchen gloves for the mothers, rice and beer for the fathers...) It's hard to pick a highlight of the day. It could be the game called "Pop the Sphere" where Moms and Dad tied a balloon to their kid's arm, and then held them up between them as the kids went after each other trying to pop each other's balloons. It was freakishly violent... Or maybe it was the one called "A Father's Love" where the Dad who could do the most push ups with their kid sitting on their back won - that's the one they got the beer for. But I think I have to say that the moment that takes the cake is when the kids put on the song and dance they'd been rehearsing for three weeks called, "Can You Do It?" Words can't describe it so I've uploaded a video below. Please Enjoy.



II: A View, China and Projectile Spaghetti

I FINALLY MOVED INTO MY APARTMENT! Living here is so much more real now that I have my place. Not that I've really unpacked or anything, but hey, give me time. My family is amazing and they sent me a bunch of things from home including new sheets and the quilt from my bed. It's nice to have a few familiar touches around. I definitely hit the jackpot as far as my apartment is concerned. It's pretty big (by Korean standards), I have an automatic lock and a pin number so I don't have to worry about carrying keys, there's a 7-11 and a Bakery in the building, along with 3 restaurants, a Christian dance club and a dry cleaners. PLUS, I'm on the 12th floor facing west so I've got a beautiful view of downtown , and on a clear day I see a gorgeous sunset... I feel really lucky.

I'm heading into my second week of teaching on my own, and it's already going better than my first did. Last week wasn't really bad: if you don't count that on my first full day of teaching one of my students threw up at lunch (which all of my other students mimed for me since they didn't know the English word for 'throw up'), a bee got caught in the classroom, I taught music to the most awfulyl behaved 5 year music and made one them cry. Eh, whatever. The job's fine - but it's definitely not my life's calling. I'm here to live in Korea, not to further the minds of Korean pre-schoolers. Sorry . With that in mind however, I'd like to brag to everyone that in exactly one week I will be in the Forbidden City and touring The Great Wall of China with one miss Andrea Mullen --- read her copycat blog at mullenskoreanconnection.blogspot.com --- yup, we're going to China. We have 3 days off from work for the Korean Holiday of Chuseok (which is like American Thanksgiving) and since this year those three days fall on a Monday-Wednesday, we took this chance to do some impromptu traveling. We found a tour with a company called Xanadu that is 4 days, 3 nights all inclusive blah blah blah. Long story short: I'm going to China, be jealous and look for postcards and pictures.


Love to everyone. Watch lots of football for me - I'm not too disappointed in the somewhat poor performances of my favorite teams because then I know they can't win "the big one" while I'm 20,000 miles away with no way to watch. :)

Peace,
Erica