Hello, Kitty. Why don't you have a mouth?

One of my students rendering of me. Pretty precise, I think. Quite simpsonesque.

Hi my family and friends!!

Hope everyone is happy and healthy. Life has been pretty eventful, and things are only going to get more busy starting on Wednesday. On Wednesday my friend Michael is coming to visit, and on Saturday my friend, Brian, is flying in also. It's going to be crazy fun! We were all supposed to go to Japan together next weekend. Sadly, because of my works obsession with Swine Influenza prevention I can't go with them.

Also, my friend Mark moved up to Nokjiwon from Middle School this week to help us out. Which is nice of him. We really, really needed someone to help out.

My Korean lessons seemed to have plateaued. They were canceled two weeks in a row. I'm still trying to study though. I wish I could practice more.

This past weekend on Friday I went out with some friends for drinks to de-stress. At the Hof (a place where you order food and grab a few drinks) that we were at there were 3 business men sitting next to us. 2 of them were pretty well gone, and the other was just feeding them more and more booze. The 2 extremely drunk guys both passed out in the hof. We decided to take some picture with them. Once the sober guy had enough of making fools out of his friends...he just left them. They slept there for the remainder of the night, and were still there when we left. What a great friend. Comedic for us though.

The next day I basically just did a lot of preparation from Mike and Brian's visit. Then, on Sunday I had made plans to go and meet up with my Korean co-workers. We went to this museum for a Hello Kitty exhibit (which was way over-priced might I add) then we went to eat some lunch and ended up at the NORAEBANG (노래방)! Which is, essentially, a singing room. We had tons of fun messing around, dancing, and singing til our throats were sore.The day before we went to the museum, my friend, Casey, pointed out that he hated Hello Kitty because she had no mouth. I, not being a huge fan of her either, never really noticed this until he pointed it out. Ironically, when I got to the museum there was a sign that "answered" the conundrum...kind of...not really. To be frank, it didn't make any sense at all.If you can see it, it says: Why Hello Kitty doesn't have the mouth?
To share her emotion with other people.
Makes absolute no sense, and is in bad English, but oh well!
I've also been listening to podcasts lately. Since it is kind of hard for me to get regular access to the news, it is one really nice method of staying informed. I've been listening to numerous ones, however, one has really piqued my interest. It's called 'How Stuff Works', and I highly recommend it to anyone I know. http://www.howstuffworks.com/ They had one really interesting broadcast about future innovations last week. One of the innovations they think would be helpful now is an international language. Did you all know that there was an international language created in the 19th century called Esperanto?!? Weird, don't you think? 2 million people speak this language apparently. If you want to learn it you can go to this website: www.lernu.net/

Also, I want to wish a very happy Father's Day to my Daddy!! I miss you so much, and I wish I could be home to celebrate this day with you!! All my love, Dad!Alright, well that's all for now, folks! I'll try to update again soon.

Love,
Marg

Can you survive on the thirty-five?

The bus system in Korea is abysmal. Not in the sense that the actual transportation system is a mess. On the contrary, the number of buses and wait time leaves no one wanting.
The ride is a different story.
Some basic principles the bus drivers follow:
+ Unless someone is chasing after the bus to get it to halt, there is no stopping...at any cost
+ The doors must always open because of velocity
+ There is no such thing as a red light...only different shades of green
+ It seems as though if 1-2 people do not fall over every hour the bus driver fails to get paid
+ The shoulder of the road is, in actuality, the carpool lane exclusively for buses.
+ Taxi cabs are the mortal enemy of the bus.
+ All the bus drivers must be friends so they can wave at each other.
+ Catching a person in the door as it shuts is also criteria for receiving salary
+ There is no hesitation in switching lanes. Cars or no cars, the bus will merge.
+ Most importantly, similar to the film Speed, if the bus goes under 40 MPH at any time it will explode.
Simple, right? Enjoy your ride on the thirty-five!

Quick update.

Hi all!
Work has been really busy lately. Mainly because both of the previous teachers that were teaching with me left, and they sent one "replacement". However, that one replacement turned out to be a dud. He got fired right before my 2 new co-workers left. Then, it took a week until we got another replacement. So, I was stuck doing 2 peoples jobs for a week.
Now, the new-new replacement wants to move to another school.
Anyway, work is just a huge mess, and I would rather not talk about.
That's the update on the work-front though.

Since the last time I updated I've done quite a few things. I went on 2 hikes, went to Lotte World (the Disney-land of Seoul), Seoul National Museum, and a few other things.

We went to this ones place called Sokcho this weekend. Where we climbed a HUGE rock!! Maybe 780 meters up. I'm not entirely sure the distance that we walked to get there, but it took us a really long time. The view from the top was really beautiful. Unfortunately we did not get to see the caves and the mountains, but I think we'll return sometime soon to check them out. There were some strange happenings while we were in the area, but nothing tooo crazy.

My friends Brian and Michael are supposed to visit towards the end of the month, and I am super excited about that. I will try and post more soon...maybe post some pictures and such!

Much love!!!