I can start to see the first signs of spring...
The ice is melting from the ground. Winter coats are on super sale. The ice cream shop on the corner opened up. I am so thankful to have lived through a real winter, and am excited to see everything come alive in a few weeks!.. I've been hearing winter season officially ends here in March.
Things have been kind of weird at work. It's the end of the school year (this is the last week of classes), so the schedule is different every day and I never know what's going on until after it happens. I just come to school expecting to teach every day, but there's always a curve ball (for example, today we have no classes... I'm not complaining!). On Thursday are the closing ceremonies, and Friday is graduation for the 6th graders. Then, the kids have 2 weeks off and the new school year starts March 2nd.
I think next year will probably be a lot different... new principle, new curriculum for 3rd and 4th graders, new students (current 2nd graders will be our new youngest batch when they are promoted to 3rd grade!), new administration staff, and some new teachers... I might even have a different coteacher. I will find out for sure on February 22nd. As frustrated as I can sometimes get with my coteacher, I dearly love her and definitely would be thankful if she were to remain in her position as English teacher. However, it's the (new) principle's decision what grade/subject each teacher teaches, so we will have to wait and see.
I have been enjoying cooking Korean food. I made a menu plan, but quickly found I couldn't adhere to it bc it was just too much food for one person! I find if I make 1 recipe per week, I have enough food to last all week. I have started employing my freezer for variety's sake :) Last night I made some super yummy chicken soup, called samgyetang. I want to make that one again for sure! My next creation will be "japchae" - noodles made of sweet potato powder, mixed with various veggies and sauces. We had it for lunch the other day, and it's one of my favorites!
Last night, right after I got done cooking my soup, someone was pounding on my front door and trying to open it. Thank God I keep it locked at all times. I was so scared... they stayed there for at least 5 minutes, but it felt like a really long time. I've never really felt unsafe around here, but there was no way I was opening that door... I tried to look through the peep hole, but it was all fogged up from the cold weather. I'd been planning to go on a walk and enjoy the sunshine, but after this incident I stayed inside behind locked doors.
The bad part about that was my heater stopped working. So, I worked out for about an hour and a half (learned a super fun dance routine) and got all warm... then when I went for a shower, I had no hot water. Bummer. I got a bowl and used the electric water heater to warm up some water so I could at least wash my face.
I woke up in the morning looking forward to a hot breakfast... I whipped up some scrambled eggs and went to turn on the stove to cook them - stove didn't work. So, I covered the eggs, put them in the fridge, and defrosted a piece of bread and made some warm milk. When I got to my classroom, the heater was on full blast, and it felt amazing :) I told my coteacher about the situation in my apartment, and she got right on it... everything should be fixed by the time I get home today. I'm so thankful. Apparently, there was some kind of issue with my Alien Registration card, and the gas company thought no one was living in my apartment. That explains the man trying to break in yesterday...
So, all in all things are fine here - there is another foreign teacher who I met on Facebook, and we are going out to dinner sometime this week. She seems really nice.
