How has life in Korea been? Rainy. Very, very, very, very, very rainy. The streets are wet, the bus is wet, my feet are wet, the corner where I keep my umbrella is wet, everything everywhere is wet. What do I think of when I think about Korea? Rain. What is the only thing I can think to write about? Rain.
But it's ok. It should stop raining by August...or by September. And there have been some other things going on. Like lots of fog.
I got a phone! It's my first smartphone ever, and I love it! It still confuses me sometimes, though. :)
My friend from college came for another weekend and left. She's in Austin now, drinking lots of Shiner. I am very jealous. We ate fried chicken, we went to see a palace, and on her last day we decided to stay inside because it was raining too hard. The fried chicken was good, though.
Last weekend, I went to an island in the West Sea. (Actually, it was four islands connected by bridges.) It rained. It was foggy. The first day, we rented bikes and rode them up the hills and through the puddles. There was lots to see, under the fog. The place was beautiful, and the fog gave it an eerie feel. Every once in a while the fog would lift 30 feet or so, and we'd say "Oh my gosh! Look over there! That island! That's amaz--- oh wait, the fog's back." This place has been compared to Thailand, and at times we could see parts of wonderfully clear or turquoise water and HUGE hilly islands in the distance. It's almost enough to make me want to go back. Saturday night, the fog and rain lifted enough for us to see a cloudy sunset, set off some fireworks, and hang out on the beach. (It turns out, there are lots of bugs that bite you on muddy beaches. They're most active in the evenings. Don't bury your feet in the sand!) It was a fun time, and there were some cool people there. On Sunday, we took a walk around part of the island, ate some ramyeon for lunch (Koreans say ramyeon instead of ramen), and read and watched some Korean dramas in our hotel room when it started to rain really hard. Not a bad weekend.
The weekend before that, my neighbors took me to Lotte World. It's a big amusement park in Seoul. Half of the park was indoors. Their 10 year old daughter came, too. We went on lots of fun rides, but I went on the bigger ones by myself. We ate fried squid dipped in peanut butter. We went ice skating, but we did not go to the shooting range. (Yes, there's a shooting range. Yes, I will go back.) I wore the biggest skates available at the rink. The guys working there didn't believe me when I asked for my size.
The past couple of weeks, half of my students have been preparing for final exams, and the other half have been doing post-exam review. (They had their finals two weeks ago, but still have a week and a half of school left.) So, work has been pretty easy. I will be glad when I get to start doing real lessons again, though.
That's about it. I've met a few more foreigners in my area, and we'll go shopping and get dinner. It's sooo nice to be more social! I'll try to post more often!
