Assah!

It's nearly time for official vacation, although you could say that I've been on "vacation" for a couple weeks now. Haven't taught much, basically I've just been something pretty to look at around school I suppose. I've spent most of this morning watching a movie, reading a book and standing outside with students watching the partial solar eclipse. We all had our makeshift viewers, and I am sure at least half of the students severely damaged their retinas. It was cool, but still not as cool as a total eclipse would be. There was none of the corona to be seen, unfortunately.
But still a great way to spend the morning.

I'm really excited for our Korean Vacation, and a proper Korean Vacation it is at that. Everything has been booked at the last minute, and we don't really have a concrete plan. The plans we do have are changed on a daily basis; maybe we will do this or maybe we will do that. There is a lesson learned quickly when living in Korea: "Go With The Flow"* and I am wholeheartedly embracing that concept. I think it will be great, no matter where we end up. Not much can go wrong with a car, a tent and miles of sandy beach! (knock on wood, I just thought of some things that could go terribly wrong... o_0!)

More posts of our vacation soon to follow,
Peace,
Kat

* or maybe it's "Why plan now, when you can cram it in at the last minute?" or perhaps, "Think ahead? Please explain..."

case in point: My "Summer" English Camp. We had known about the summer camp since May, plenty of time to get it all in order. We had even settled on a weekend that was good for all of us. About two weeks before the summer camp was to happen, I asked my co-teacher if the facilities had been booked. He said, "Oh yeah, I'll phone". He came back a few days later with the unfortunate news that all the facilities were booked for the summer months. Okay, fine sure, I didn't really care, as I honestly really didn't care. But I know for a fact that these camps are mandatory, so my concern is when exactly is the camp going to happen, crammed in at the end of my contract? But wait, isn't there a winter camp too? So I politely suggested that he phone them back immediately and book a time for September. He still hasn't done it. Sigh. His reason? When he phoned (in June) there were still open rooms for September. Maybe he's right, maybe they still won't be booked closer to September... but why take the chance when you have the money sitting there waiting? I don't really understand the logic.

Cultural exchanges, cultural near exchanges of fists, wishing i could exchange cultures

Well, it's been a whirlwind roller coaster tornado of hurricane-like emotions in the last few weeks. We are only days away from vacation which will hopefully bring back some of the joy of being here. I joke sometimes that the kids are the only reason I'm sticking around (and the $$$)...korea and I are like a dysfunctional relationship, we're sticking together for the kids. Already, it is summer, and I must remind myself that we only have 7 months left, and in that 7 months, only 4 more months of actual work. However, there are things that have tided us over, two weeks ago, we were given an opportunity to travel to Yeongin, near Seoul, to explore a traditional folk village. Check out the pictures HERE. It was a good experience, and I think since we've decided to buckle down and put more significant payments on our loans, we've stopped doing these sorts of excursions. I think that's what made the first year fun enough to convince us to do a second year here. Now it seems like we're only living for the next vacation, and the rest of the time is just walking in place, passing time and not making use of it.

Stupid money and responsibility...wish I could shrug it off and just travel every weekend :). At least we've found a bit of a new hobby. We invested in some cheap snorkeling gear, and have been hitting up the East Sea when we can. Our vacation will have plenty of opportunities to snorkel in some tropical-ish ocean on Jeju-do.

And although we haven't even begun this vacation yet, I'm already counting the days to the next one.