Today I walked for three hours... I should have brought my camera, because I saw so many beautiful and amazing things!

I followed the Gongjicheon River and found Lake Soyoung. Around the lake, there are many parks and walking paths. It's great! I will definitely be going back there frequently. Very peaceful.

I also happened upon the public library. It's nice and modern, about 4 stories (no pun intended). I only explored the first floor, which is the children's books. There is a whole section with English books! I stayed and read a few :)

Then I went and sat outside on a wooden swing (the kind you'd call a porch swing). I enjoyed the sunshine and watched a squirrel jump from tree to tree! I was really amazed at that little guy.

Then I came home and grabbed the lunch I'd packed earlier: brown rice, seaweed, raisins and almonds, and went to school. There is a nice outside area with benches, so I was there for about 2 hours, eating my lunch and studying.

I came home and talked with Jason for a bit, then walked to Emart. I ran into the special education assistant teacher - she's awesome! This is the second time I've seen her there on a Sunday (and come to think of it, I was wearing the same exact outfit last time ha). I bought some milk, tofu and bean sprouts (they were taped together, good deal!), Special K (had a water pitcher taped to the box... as you can tell, free gifts are commonly included with purchases!), Activia yogurt, and my favorite little 5-grain high-fiber crackers.

As I was walking home, my grocery bag (which I've been reusing for apparently too long now) ripped. Luckily, I caught it before everything went falling out the bottom, and I had an empty cloth bag with me so I just stopped and transfered everything into the cloth bag ;)

I saw so many of my students throughout the day. I saw Jinho riding his bike, then at the park I saw our of my little guys, and walking back from school I saw one of my really shy girls. I love that I can go walk around and see so many people I know! All together, I think I saw 7 familiar faces today (if you don't count the Emart employees who are definitely familiar faces to me haha).

The weather was sweet today. Just perfect. Maybe I will get somewhat tan?

Pictures

Pictures

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.