January

My Second Level camp girls...I miss them. The younger grades are freakin' hooligans! haha
The younguns' having some fun.


Sorry that I've been so slack on blogging this month. In all honesty, life has not been that exciting. I do camps everyday 9-1 and have to stay until 4:30. Then in the evenings, it's too cold and I'm too tired and poor to go out! :)
There has been a question asked a couple times to me that I keep forgetting to answer. HEAT? OR NO HEAT? That is the question. My school has a heating system that I can control. It by no means is very efficient. There are ceiling vents that let the heat in, but the rooms are all mainly concrete walls and the window can often let in quite a draft. None of the bathrooms or hallways or the cafeteria are heated. So all the doors stay closed. Most classrooms in the older building (not mine) only have electric heaters in them. SO, it is very common for students and teachers to just be wearing their coats all day. My heating situation in my office and classroom is pretty good, so I am lucky, but students are still just used to having their coats and sometimes some are colder than others.

On Friday I went to the visitation of my principal. There are visitation rooms in hospitals here. There was a place to visit others and sit and eat (Korean style - on the floor). And to the left was a room where the family was. Her husband and two boys were so sad. The tradition in these rooms is to take a flower from the basket and place it in front of the deceased's picture. Then you back up and bow twice.
Next, you face the family and bow once and pay your respects. It was definietly different for me. And the lack of personal interaction or touch was hard for me as I could only communicate with my tone of voice and body language. But I could tell they were grateful for my visit, so that was meaningful to me.

I'm so excited that there's only 4 more days left until vacation!! Here are some pictures that show what I've been up to some of January.
I got a pedicure for the first time in my life. For those of you that know me well, this was a big deal. I hate feet. That poor Korean woman had a lot of work to do...but they look nice!

This is a wall in my apartment where I've posted most of the cards I got for Christmas! Thank you!

I sleep a lot. Never seems like enough though. I love my new pillowcase I get to sleep with from my family for Christmas.
Here is my fridge mainly filled with pictures that people have sent me or I took with to Korea! Sorry Aunt Annette, the flash caught your picture at the top there!
Last, I've spent some down-time putting together a scrapbook of my trip to Europe this summer. It's been pretty fun, but I miss working Mom on this kind of thing - she's much more creative than I am!