The Two Month Mark

Time here in Korea is flying by. It's almost close to the 2 month mark of my 6 month stay in Korea, and it I have yet to truly explore what this country has to offer. Waiting on that paycheque so I don't have to scrimp on the trips. There is a DMZ trip that I have my eye on, and I can't wait to finally book the ticket. It's a good thing there will be festivals galore in the coming months, and I'm excited to hit as many of them up as possible. I feel kind of bad though, I have yet to spend a weekend here in Muju. Being in the country is definetly something I'm not used to, so I need my dose of the city every week. Luckily, I have awesome friends in Jeonju who make my trips to the city incredibly worthwhile.

March has been a pretty good month. Aside from the bumps at the beginning dealing with housing and everything, it's been a real smooth time. Finally started to teach, and there is quite a range of students. My grade 1's and 2's are awesome. Although I have to find a way to spruce up learning about the alphabet. I've been doing A-H for a week now, and they still haven't gotten used to matching the sounds to the letter. They can sing the ABC song, but thats about it. I'm hoping to find a way to make it more interesting. My other class of grade 2's and 3's...are...boring. They look like they don't wanna be there, and participate to a bare-minimum. Even with the use of candy and stickers, they seem very unenthusiastic. Once again, hope to find a way to make them more interested in the language. Cause I'm bored as hell trying to teach 10 inanimate bags of flesh. My grade 4/5's are awesome. They are probably the most interactive bunch of students I have. Made paper cranes today, and they kept swarming me to make some for them. I like how they are never late. One kid, Minhyeok, sits in the beginner classes and helps them, even though his class doesn't start for another hour. Awesome lil' guy. As for my grade 6's...I'm not sure how I feel about them yet. I've only had them for one class, since the last week, they all went to the International Centre, which I did not mind in the least! It gave me 2 hour work days and 2 hour breaks. Aweesome. Now they will be regularly coming to class, but again, I have to see the differences in levels so I can plan accordingly. Most of them have a pretty good grasp of English, so I really do have a wide range of students to cater to. Makes it really difficult to switch from total newb to someone who can carry conversations in English.

Aside from teaching, life in Muju is quiet. I've been hitting the gym regularly, the person manning the desk always says hi to me in English. Other that that, I've been abusing the speed of Korean internet. Have caught up to Big Bang Theory and quite a few movies. Weekends on the other hand...

Have yet to have a completely alcohol-free weekend since my first week. It's great. haha. I'm glad other scholars in Jeonju enjoy dancing to the late/early hours as well. 4 am pool is a great way to simmer down. I have to admit, the music is getting boring. I swear all the DJ's share the same playlist and mixes. On top of that, Jeonju clubs have breaks. Actual breaks where the dancefloor clears and everyone sits down to drink or...take a break. It gets lame, especially when you only wanna dance the night away! Can't help it I guess, aside from yelling at the DJ to hurry up and play music. Or just dancing on floor sans music anyways. Pretty sure both options make me look like a foreign douchebag. Good thing I'm not the only one though. teehee. Last weekend was especially great. Kaisha's birthday celebration ended up being a weekend celebration. Stayed there for 2 days, and enjoyed my time throughly sobering up in a multi-bang/pc-bang. Saturday was a rough day.

Next week? SEOUL. This has been a weekend in the making. First payday, and it will be epiccc. Gonna head down right after work, look around the city for a while, then it's Namdaemun Market. Which I'm hoping will put Richmond Night Market to shame. After shopping till 3am, head to Hongdae to sleep, then resume the shopping at Dongdaemun! I think it's the mall where Cinderella Man (The K-drama, not movie) was located. So yayyyy. Then gonna celebrate a birthday and dance the night away at Gangnam. Will be blogging about that later, but all this Hump Day could not have come any faster. I've been feeling really drained this week...maybe sleeping at 6am for 3 nights straight isn't doing my sleep patterns any help. But here I am, awake at 3am...again. Thank goodness I don't work till 2 on Wednesdays.

Thank you payday, for allowing me to book tickets. And finally start touring this country. :)