Rousin Rabbles

hello people!

nothing too new here...just work, work, work...last week and this week is holding period, which means minimal kids last week, and NONE this week! woohoo! they have tests in their regular schools, so we give them a break and let them study more than usual. the only drawback to holding period is the immense amount of work the teachers have to do. BOO. last week i taught three classes (instead of 10), some correcting, and created a set of TOEFL questions for the online homework next semester or so. that included 8 different questions, some with lectures and reading, all with answers. this week i have to finish correcting all of my online homework, plus prepare two mock teaching classes, and a teaching manual for two types of speaking questions. i only have 40 hours to do all this...i don't think so...i'll be going in early a few days and bringing some stuff home.

last week was my birthday, and it was lotsa fun!! we all met down in the courtyard for a while and listened to music, drank some beer, talked, ate cake, etc., then we went to bundang to lose control til like 4am. i got a bottle of wine and two cakes for my birthday...yay! thanks to all of you who sent me birthday cards/wishes!

i also got a cell phone last week! my number is: 010.4528.9008...if you call me on skype you can just dial that number, but if you call me from a land line, then you have to dial: 011.82.010.4528.9008...i would love to randomly get a call from the united states...hint hint hint...

friday night we worked from 1100-1800, so i went to bundang to play pool with steve and a few of his friends...one of the guys is a korean from LA who actually knew quite a bit about iowa! i was mucho impressed! i was also excited that i finally met the other conservative foreigner in all of korea haha!! we went to some chinese restaurant and had supper, then went to play more pool, then hit up some low key place around the corner. one of the students texted steve and said hi, so i swiped the phone and wrote him back a few times...later he asked steve what were doing, so i told him to respond with: basket weaving =)

on saturday, kim and i went to seoul to meet jen at the dragon hill spa...i think i'll be going back there next month! it's 10 bucks to get in, then they give you some awesome 'spa clothes' and a key to put around your wrist. at all the different places in the spa, you just swipe your bracelet across a scanner and it charges your account. these spa clothes were one-size fits all heavy cotton khaki shorts and shirt with lime green. sexy. i can't say those outfits are anything i'd wear on a regular basis. but anyway, we got some threading done, then hung out in the sauna, then went to the cooling room, and repeated that for a few hours. the cooling room was sooooo sweet!! it was like a freezer and had a couple snowmen to hug to cool you off. =) we were supposed to go to the soccer game in suwon, but it took too much time getting to the spa (two freaking hours to get from suji to seoul...normally takes about 40 minutes) so we hopefully will get to another game in a couple weeks. after the spa we went to the mall and had sushi and ice cream, and took some pictures, then kim and i came home. i had this rice drink that looked absolutely disgusting, but was surprisingly good...it looked like dirty water with rice floating in it...but it was very sweet and delicious!

my dinner...in the top left corner is cabbage with 'yogurt sauce,' next to it is radish (standard with EVERY meal), kimchi, wasabi, seaweed with radish and caviar and rice and green stuff, california rolls, porridge-type thing served with the meal to prepare your pallet for food, and last but not least, soup! the cali rolls had breaded shrimp and crab wrapped in seaweed, rice on the outside, topped in caviar and pretty yellow and pink sauce!

this was kim's food...dragon roll...

this is my new favorite picture. i call it 'the exact same double life.' this guy is wearing red converse shoes and jeans, plus carrying a pair of the same shoes and colored jeans in his hand...it was amusing.

today is sunday and we were planning on going to lotte world. it's an amusement park with fun roller coasters and whatnot...BUT, of course it was raining most of the morning and somehow between last night and this morning, i got sick. instead of going to lotte world, i did some laundry, went to the atm, got some ramen at ok mart, and slept. real productive. i'm going to get my hair cut again tomorrow...it'll be shorter this time and hopefully a little less straight and flat. i'm actually really worried about my hair....like REALLY worried. i'm worried about it falling out (oh the irony). a lot of foreign people come here and because of the excessive bleach in the water (quoi??), it makes women's hair fall out...er, something. it happened to grace and now she has to take some amazing amount of vitamins to grow her hair back...i hope this doesn't happen to me!!!

kim is going to china for ten days next weekend...and she's leaving for home in like two months. i can't believe i've almost been HERE two months. it just doesn't seem real. if the next ten months go by this quickly, i don't know what i'll do! before kim leaves we are taking a trip to the east coast, going to the dmz, lotte world, climb some mountain, everland, and some other stuff....i'm also going camping and at some point i'm going bungee jumping with mau and some of his friends!! i can't waaaaaaitttttttt!!! oohh...and we are surprising kim for her birthday and going to see 'cats' (the musical by my all time favorite composer andrew lloyd webber!!!!!!)...awesome

i got a call from seewoo yesterday and we're making plans for him to come up here to visit some weekend. he told me he is going back to iowa as a transfer student..i had no idea he liked iowa so much!

ok, enough rambling...have a great week everyone!

<3 k