Wow, it's been well over a month since we last wrote something on here, Hawaii seems like it was forever ago, but we arrived back just over a month ago apparently, I mean, that's what the calendar says but I don't trust it.
Eliz and I just got back from our third trip to Costco since arriving in Korea. Tonight we arrived earlier than the past two trips so we were very happy to find all the sample stations still set up. Among other things, we had New York steak, bulgogi (Korean style marinated beef strips), Quaker oats cereal with milk, dried apricot, some noodle soup, and AMAZING chocolate truffles (if you like chocolate and frequent Costco, seek them out...they come in a two-bag set)
Today we had a new class schedule which was really confusing, then it'll change again in March once the oldest kindergarteners graduate. All of January there were a lot of kids gone as public school is on break and many kids take off of private lessons for that time as well, now most of them are back and classes need to reworked, plus they're making all the Special classes which are all the best kids from the previous classes...like A.P, for younger kids. Kinda sad though as a few of the original classes only have a few students left, so those students must feel kinda bad. One class went from having five boys to one boy, so the one boy was crying for about half of class because he was so sad his friends were gone, and also cause he probably didn't understand why he wasn't good enough to be in Special class.
I had an intense workout this morning...I went to the gym this morning and after powerwalking with intense arms swinging on the treadmill for about five minutes, my arm caught my headphone cord and yanked one of my earbuds out of my ear, totally startling me. I went to put it back in and realized the rubber piece that goes into your ear had disconnected in the process, so I proceeded to look for it. I didn't see it on or around the treadmill, so I tried looking underneath it, but there were treadmills butting up against on both sides and a wall a few inches in front of it, so I could only try looking underneath from behind, which didn't work too well. I looked around the rest of the area as I figured it could have gone a few feet, all the time a group of five older Korean ladies sitting on their recumbant bikes watching me, wondering what the heck I was looking for. One of them got up after a few minutes and went to fetch an employee, so I followed her and got someone to help me roll the treadmill out so I could get a better look underneath. After pulling out the second treadmill I saw an earbud and grabbed it, covered in hair and dust-bunnies, though happy to have it back. I washed it off and got back on the treadmill, then about a minute later I heard a clank and this bzzz type sound, and looked down to see my locker key (which I'd stuck into the waistband of my shorts, no pockets) had fallen and gotten wedged between the tread and an opening on the side, unbelievable! So, of course, the women were all still on their bikes watching this whole thing, so after I stopped the treadmill and yanked out the key, I resorted to a massage chair for about 30 secounds until realizing I had to get to school soon.
So, I started to head for the showers and some black, slimey looking thing on the floor caught my eye in front of three of the fishtanks. I bent down for a close look and realized it was a fish that must have jumped out of the tank somehow. I poked it to see if it was still alive and it wiggled a little, so I picked it up by its' fin and dropped it into the tank. I watched it for a minute to see if it would start swimming and was happy to see it recalibrate after regaining oxygen. Then about ten seconds later I realized that I'd put it into the wrong tank! There were two others right next to it and saw the exact same fish in another. Not wanting to only save the fish part-way I worried that I might have put a fresh-water fish into saltwater, but they appeared to both be fresh-water tanks. I'd pulled Elizabeth over to see what I'd done and monitor the fish while I went to get an employee who could get a net to do a little switcheroo. After motioning to a confused female employee that I wanted her to come downstairs to help with a fish dilemma, we got to the tank "just in time" as Elizabeth had been pounding on the glass (I think putting her arm in would have been better) to stop a bigger fish who had already tried eating the fin of our little friend, Elizabeth had also already found a net, so the two girls held the half lid out of the way while I swooped in with the trusty little net, caught the fish in one attempt, then plopped him into his correct home. Yea, I felt like a pretty big hero, the female employee and Elizabeth were impressed with my valiant efforts. =D
Oh yea, after looking at my earbuds later, I realized the one I'd found under the treadmill was significantly smaller than the other (I thought it felt loose after I put it back on), so I went back at lunch and had someone move the treadmill out again and found mine with amazing ease. What a relief! ha, yea I know, sounds goofy, but I haven't seen ear-buds for sale and didn't want to buy new headphones
Yup, that was my exciting morning, pretty sweet eh? It's silly how much type it takes to tell what would have taken a minute or so to tell you face to face. So I never finished this earlier so now I'm home and it's 12:30 already! Elizabeth and I made garlic smashed potatoes for dinner tonight, our first time and they were delicious! Not that there's really anything to mess up. This weekend we also made tomato soup (not from a can) for the first time as well as apple sauce. We thought both turned out pretty well and had a couple friends over Sunday afternoon who testified (without our encouragement) that our tomato soup was of high quality! I think I feel more satisfaction from cooking than I do teaching kids...gotta sleep here.
