Busy Busy Busy

Hi all,

A quiet but busy weekend this time around. Jen and I went over to a friends' house to play a game or two and relax on Saturday, then aborted our trip to the Suwon Cultural Festival when we both woke up with caffeine headaches and the realization that we needed to get some work done.

I'm taking a class with Ontesol (www.ontesol.ca) to get my certificate for when I go back home. As I've probably mentioned before, here, I want to be able to teach ESL when I return to Canada--I've found I enjoy it a great deal, and that I'd like to continue to pursue this as a career in my home country. 

So I slogged away at that for a few hours, and got my assignments done. Then sat around and watched some TV on the Internet, and brushed up on the news. It was, in short a happy afternoon. We got some pizza, and went out to enjoy a blustery but sunny afternoon dinner.

It's nice, this time of year, in Korea. We've got sun, but we've yet to have the pleasure of wading through the monsoons, and while it can get hot, it's not yet so bad that we are forced to stay indoors and turn on the Air Con. I'm going to start planning some ventures to Hwaseong and the Suwon palace, as well as to Seoul to see the sights, and since Jen and I are keeping an eye on our budget (we came here to save money, after all), we're looking at Korean destinations for the remainder of our time here.

We have one vacation planned to Tokyo for a few days, simply to see the biggest megacity this side of the Pacific, but beyond that, we plan on getting out to Korean Folk Village, to Everland, Busan, Jeju-Do, and for me, Hae-in-sa, site of some of the oldest Buddhist scriptures in Korea. 

We also started a weekday Kindergarten class this week on Thursdays and Fridays at school. Guess who got the first two?

It's good to have the same kids in these classes, and to teach them at a more convenient time. The other teachers seem to have been a little surprised at how much I run around with them, but then, if I don't, they'll go to sleep!

It's been a good week, and I'm feeling rather zen about everything--we've got three months left, and I'm becoming more and more actively aware of what I'm doing, trying to preserve the memories for the rest of my life so that, when I return to Canada, I can tell the story of my time here in Korea. 

I hope it's been fun for ya'll, as it has been for me.

Best regards,

Chris

A Quick Update

(A fun picture of the 'old gang,' Me, Jennifer, Daniel, Oliver, David, Stephanie (taking the picture), Ashley, Sumi, and Sarah)

Hi all,

So, a quick update this week. I know that I'm starting to wear down around the edges--I can kind of feel the cognitive blurring that happens when you get really tired. It'd be an interesting thing to study, were it not happening to me.

What's happening? Not much. We relaxed this weekend, both of us being exhausted, and I still managed to drag myself out of bed at 4 in the morning to Skype home, and play some D&D with some friends by remote conference. It was neat, and, I have to say, pretty amazing to be able to see my friends again, even if only digitally.

Wonders of modern technology, eh?

Speaking of which, I'm taking a TESL Certification course online, at www.ontesol.com. It's pretty good, so far, although I've had some issues with their quiz design (4 adjectives in one sentence, and I have to guess which 2 out of the 4 that the computer will recognize as correct answers, oi).

I'm discovering that I really enjoy teaching ESL, and would love to continue doing it back home--maybe to adults, maybe still to kids. Either way, it's a decent living, and one that I feel good doing--always important.

Anyway, I'm going to grab some coffee and wake myself up--gotta do some grading.

Still hanging in there,

Chris