Weekend Update

Hello everyone! Dave here... I will start off this post with a news flash!! I am an Uncle again... .and this time I have a nephew!! My sister, Laura, delivered a health baby boy, Nolan, this week. We are so happy for her over here and cannot wait to meet the little guy!

Moving on... We have been here for one month! That is unbelievable!! I am almost settled in to my role of teaching, and Megan has been thriving (of course)! I have leaned on her for a lot of help and ideas, it has been invaluable. I hope we can get a few school specific posts going, and let you get to know a few of the kids, as well as a bit more about some of the nuances in Korean culture. We are starting to adjust to these, but I think it'd be something really interesting to write home about. For now, I'll just post an update.

Tomorrow marks the final week of "Summer English Camp" aka babysit the poor kids and make them go to school during summer vacation while their parents work, or sit at home and drink 소주(soju, he he). That means that Megan and I will be going on the same schedule, starting Friday. It will also mark the departure of our co-worker Christy. We are sad to see her leave as we've gotten to know her over the past month :-(.

Hopefully the change will allow us to do a few more things during the week, instead of simply punching the clock. We have some plans to begin a morning hike / work out routine at a nearby outdoor workout center. The gym would be W150,000 a month ($150), so it is not an option just yet.

Last Thursday, our co-worker (who also found the job for us) was SOOO kind and took my classes over from 7-9:30PM, which allowed me to go out to dinner with a Korean woman named Silvia, along with Megan, Christy and her boyfriend Marc. It was a delicious Korean BBQ style meal of smoked duck. MMMMM. It was much better then dealing with 2.5 hrs of teaching to say the least! Silvia was REALLY kind, and I think we hope to hang out with her when we are able to. She had excellent English, and loved to get a bit of practice. Her husband and two young children were also with. We went for a quick walk around the park afterward, and then Silvia was gracious enough to give us a ride home after taking us out to dinner! This is something that just wouldn't happen back at home. The kindness is just something else in Korean culture, something Western culture could take a lesson from.

Friday marked the arrival of Jeff, Hyegyong, Hana and Sara. I was so lucky in that I had a few hours left before I had to work, so I was able to get picked up and head over to Weon's house for lunch mere minutes after they returned to 여수 (Yeosu, hehe). It was refreshing to see their faces. The familiarity of someone you know brings an indescribable feeling after a month abroad. Weon also gave us a carpet for our living room, which absolutely rocks. We can sit on the floor now, which is quite nasty w/o it. Weon has been SO kind to us since we've arrived, he has been absolutely great. He is one of the many motivating factors for which I'd like to improve my Korean beyond... "Hello - beer please! Thank you!" (and a few other phrases). We also got a new camera... Thanks Mom, Dad and Jeff for getting that here!!!

On Saturday, we took advantage of our free time and took advantage of a nice, sunny day to get some reading in on our roof top. I finished up Deception Point, recommend it if you are looking for a thriller. I also got a horrible sun burn... Afterwards, we hooked up with Marc and Christy to go for a hike up the big mountain nearby. We walked to the trail, which was probably a mistake, and then went up. Half way up we found (hopefully) our future gym, which you can see in the pictures. We reached the top in maybe an hour, and were afforded AWESOME views of Yeosu. I also ran into one of the guys who went sailing with us at the top of the mountain...kinda crazy! It was exhausting, but a lot of fun. After we were done, we took some time to get ready for the night, and headed to Jeff's for some dinner (Thanks Jeff!). We caught the 4x400 victory for the US Women. It was the first clip of the Olympics either Megan or I had seen (besides Korean archery or ping-pong).

We went out to Ellui at about 10 for the big going away party for most of the public school employees. It was fun to see many foreingers, and to be able to speak English at a reasonable pace, instead of the normal, slow, and deliberate manner... The bar show was excellent and we have some more pictures. You can also see pics of our co-workers Gwen and Christy.

HERE IS A LINK TO THE PICTURES!!

That's it for now, I plan on spicing the blog up with a few more interesting pieces, besides just the standard journal format... That could also go the way of most "internet plans" (down the toilet), but I hope not. If anything, the journal format will definitely continue. We have more stories coming, getting an international license (and maybe a car!! *gasp*), Korean culture gaffs, etc, so keep reading!!

I hope all is well for everyone in the US... Please keep emailing, facebooking, commenting, skyping, calling, writing letters, and anything else. It feels great every time, no matter how long or short the message is.