Pain

I was walking out the building when I slipped and fell on the marble stairs, landed on my ankle, and heard a pop. The stairs were soaked because one of the other businesses had spilled something and failed to clean it up. (I never take the stairs when it's raining.) I am eternally grateful one of my students had chosen to walk out with me and was able to help me up. But she slipped a flight later. Luckily she was OK, whereas I walked home openly sobbing like a little girl.

After a few hours of ice and a bottle of soju instead of dinner, the swelling is minimal. Again, I am eternally grateful it is not broken or sprained, but it still hurts like hell and is going to put a damper on my weekend, sidelining me for the mud obstacle course.

It doesn't help that I have weird emotional overreactions to injury and illness and am struggling with this one.

*Fingers crossed for a lightning quick recovery*

Countdown

In 3 days, 2 hours, and 14 minutes, I will be on the beach at the Boryeong Mud Festival with Adventure Korea.

I'm flying to Jeju (also with AK) Tuesday through Friday.

And the following weekend I get to go on a DMZ tour.

So much for a relaxing summer vacation.

Gym time!

This!

For science!

Teaching science is fun.

A belated happy birthday to Parker

My three youngest siblings' birthdays are all fall on the first week of July.

What were they thinking?

One of my students came to class yesterday with a backpack filled with 딱지 (or pogs) and none of his textbooks.

My favorite daily exchange

"Jake-uh teacha! Ponicks time?"

"Yes, Henry. It's phonics time."

Dawn

I randomly awoke at 5:12 this morning and saw the sky looking an unusual color through my shades. So I opened the window and captured this, no post-editing except for a crop.

July Field Trip

Yes, we teachers spent a lot of time throwing exercise balls at the children.

Someone's birthday boy in hanbok

(traditional Korean garb)

And Cindy Loo-Hoo made an appearance, too.

My 50th video!

Scavenger hunt

Look what I found in my elementary school's library!

I showed it to the other teachers and declared myself winner of the scavenger hunt. There was no hunt, but another teacher accepted my challenge and will be scouring the shelves tomorrow for something to beat my find in terms if inappropriate content. In the mean time, I am totally going to read this trash.

Office antics

The native teachers are starting a pool on how long/if the Korean-American teacher escapes his crazy, abusive, alcoholic, live-in, Korean co-worker girlfriend. Fun day at work.


Also, the 4-year-olds enjoy being spun around upside-down until they're too dizzy to walk. And I enjoy watching children stumble around like drunks. Good times are had by all.

Icky sicky

Back home I only got sick once a year. Friday, I came down with my fourth illness since January. Today I will be seeing the same doctor for the fifth time since March. Five because you can only get three days worth of prescription medicine in Korea and standard procedure is for general practitioners to just look at your nose and throat without actually running any tests to diagnose anything, so I always have to go back to the doctor four or five days later because, big surprise, I'm still sick. I wonder if he's as tired of seeing me yet as I am of him.

Happy birthday, Grant!

My two youngest siblings' birthdays are July 1st and 3rd.

Happy birthday, Sydney!

Because we live so far apart, my family has a tradition of calling to sing "Happy Birthday" or at least leaving it as a voicemail message. Usually alone, I began recruiting my friends to help me with the messages to my siblings. I can't call this year, so I'm doing one better...