Today Marrisa picked me up at 9am, and we took the bus from Emart to Obong Mountain. I learned the "obong" means 5 tops (the mountain has 5 summits). We hiked for about 3 hours, and then ate lunch next to a mountain stream overlooking Chongpyeong temple. After eating, we walked around the temple grounds... These buildings are literally centuries old. Then we walked through the town, ending up at Lake Soyoung. We took a ferry across the lake and caught a bus back to Chuncheon (I got home around 4:30pm). God answered my prayer for no rain (the forcast said there was a very high chance, but we stayed dry!). It was a good day :)

More Korean I learned today:
majima - don't do that
yogi - here
jogi - there
annyonghicaseyo - goodbye

Good memories from today:

• 6th grade Star class - LOVE them!
• laughing so hard at the 3rd graders playing sentence relay - they get SO into it!
• after lunch, walking around in the sunshine with Marrisa, before quickly being mobbed by some awesome girls haha... Tina (Che Rin) and Olivia love me. They said I am famous at our school. Olivia asked me to adopt her ha.
• calling the Fed Ex Korea people and cracking up the whole time bc the man I was talking with kept calling me "sir" and we totally had hilarious miscommunications
• Walking along the river path after dinner - the sunset was beautiful, and I saw many cute kids and dogs

http://cnue-e.es.kr/?main

My school's website :) I finally found it haha.

As I write this, I am sitting in the teachers' office at my school. I was not allowed to teach the first two classes of the day. The Korean government has expanded their English education program this year, to include 24 hours per week of English education. However, my contract stipulates I can teach a maximum of 22 hours, or else I must be paid time and a half. As with every other school in the world, mine has a budget deficit. They cannot afford to pay me more money, so for 2 hours per week I must just entertain myself on the school grounds somewhere, and appear to be working. Well, I have been working for these past two hours... Working on my novel, that is ;) and on drinking this delicious Korean coffee the research teacher brought me. You know, being here has its definite hardships - no doubt about it. But overall, I must realize how blessed I am to be here. I will never again have this opportunity (or this kind of work schedule haha). 194 days until I am home. I am very near the half way point. It's time to look back, recognize my triumphs and failures in being here, and make this next (last half) the very best it can be.

Here are some quick updates from today:

• The apartment manager repaired my kitchen light the same day the school called about it! I am so thankful :)
• It's "impossible" for Jason to eat lunch at school with me, since he's not a student or a staff member.
• I will only be teaching 22 classes/week from now on (because the school has no money to pay me overtime). This leaves my coteacher teaching 2 classes all by herself. I don't think it's fair to her, but hopefully I can help her out by copying papers or creating worksheets, or doing SOMETHING while she is teaching those classes (I still have to be at school, I'm just not allowed to teach... I know, really wierd).
• It's "impossible" for me to use the wedding week after I'm already married (a.k.a. Hawaii is definitely a no-go for me).
• Summer break is July 24 - August 22. I can choose any two weeks as vacation time :)

Lunch was delightful today... we had kim chi fried rice, and I thought it tasted exactly like Spanish rice. Oh, how I miss Mexican food! It was raining and cold today. The weather is so unpredictable...

I will never understand why they do things the way they do here. But, I'm sure everyone thinks I am totally weird and they don't understand me either ;)

I am learning a lot about patience and humility...

My coteacher rarely if ever gives me any work to do. Even being nearly half way through my teaching contract, my role here remains ambiguous.

I am learning to be flexible and prepared...

I'm finally feeling better, after a week-long bout of laryngitis. This was the first time I've really experienced the frustration of having no voice.

I am learning to be thankful I don't have a disability or limitation some people live with every day...

I have a lot to be thankful for.

Hoping to rest this weekend and get fully recovered!

My voice is still gone and I feel SUPER yucky! If I'm not better tomorrow, I'll go back to the doctor after school.

This morning there was SO MUCH NOISE coming from the apartment above me. I was thinking, what are they doing in there, moving the furniture??? Then when I went outside to go to work, I saw a semi truck with a ladder stretched up to the window of that apartment. They moved out.

The kids were so funny today. Since I was gone for the first part of Tuesday, today's kids hadn't seen me using the microphone. "Teacher, what's that?" they all asked.

"Mic-a," I said.

"ahhhh."

So curious and cute :) It sounded pretty pathetic when I'd whisper into the mic. One 3rd grader (English name is Dean, he cracks me up) said, "Danielle, don't talk." Ha!

At lunch, Dean sat next to me. He is one of our stronger English speakers. He kept asking me questions about Korean words, trying to teach me. Hi mother was volunteering in the cafeteria, and she came over and told him to stop bothering me lol. I didn't mind, but I wanted him to obey his mom. He was quiet for about 5 minutes, then turned to me again and was back at it with the Korean teaching. The kids love to hear me try to speak Korean - they get a good laugh at my expense :)

There was another observation class today. All the teachers had to watch the new 3rd grade homeroom teacher do a social studies lesson. I didn't understand what was happening, but laughed much of the time. The kids are so goofy! In that class there are two little boys who make me laugh so hard. At the beginning of the semester I asked them their names. One of them said, "I'm Obama," and the other said, "Michael Jackson." Marrisa didn't think this was too humorous, but I really couldn't control my laughter. They are the class clowns, and whenever they are acting up I have to use every bit of self control I can muster not to say, 'Hey! Obama; Michael... cool it!'

For some reason the kids are just now noticing the diamond ring I've been wearing since I returned here in January. "Couple ring? Namjachingo?" they ask.

"No," I tell them. "Husband." I then point to myself and say, "wife." Usually they still ask the first questions again... so I say, "married."

Blank stares.

"Dun-dun-du-dun, du-dun-du-dun..."

Then comes the freak out moment. Now they understand I am married. Usually it's announced by one of the louder boys to the entire class... All I can hear is "blahblahMARRIEDUHblahblahTANYEUL(my name)blahblah." Can't wait to see their reaction when they actually meet Jason. So cute.