Finally, finally I have a new computer!
And the fact that I didn't have a smoothly working one until Sunday will be my excuse for not updating the blog for over a month. I've got an art project I've started working on so perhaps pictures of that coming soon. I hope to make a series of paintings and perhaps posting photos of them will help me remember to write updates as well.
This semester is just FLYING by. I can't believe it, but after this week is the middle school speaking test, and then there's one more week for review and then finals!!
After that I'll have those three "What the heck, Korea?" weeks after finals where the students turn into either zombies or holy terrors due to the fact that they won't be tested on anything I'm trying to teach them.
Luckily I've been getting much more creative about lesson planning, and I'm feeling more and more confident about my teaching. When I first came to Korea I thought classroom management would be a big struggle for me, but to my surprise, I took to the classrooms of 30+ middle school students pretty well (I mean, there are those days, and those classes, that are horrible, but for the most part, things are pretty good). What I struggled with my first semester (and the beginning of this one) was lesson planning, and now that is just getting easier and easier, so my job is going great.
Since my last blog post, there've been two holiday weekends. First, we had Bhudda's birthday and Children's day in May, and then election day and Memorial day at the beginning of June. For the first holiday, I didn't plan ahead, so when my friends Tami and Vicky and I tried to take a last minute trip to Busan or Sokcho or somewhere else, ALL bus tickets were sold out, so we ended up just wandering around in Seoul. Having learned my lesson, my Dongsong neighbor and Cheorwon's official newbie Dani and I decided to go to Busan for Memorial day weekend and bought out tickets ahead of time. The planning hit a few bumps on the way from changing bus schedules and limited motel reception hours, but despite those bumps, we managed to get our bus tickets and book a motel. Ready for adventure, we set out on Thursday as soon as Dani finished work. We caught our bus to Seoul with no problem, and even met up with Ben and Rochelle for a quick dinner before the long bus ride to Busan. We arrived at about 1:30 am and spent he next half hour trudging down the street looking for a motel that wouldn't charge us an exorbitant amount. After refusing the first few places our patience was rewarded. The next morning we met up with a friend of Dani's and several of Busan foreigner community. We went for a nice walk along the coast in Amnam park, and then had a fantastic late lunch at Jalgalchi Seafood Market. Unfortunately the remainder of the day was spend searching for our motel, which but between our three phones and the help of a kind hostel worker, we managed to find it.
On Saturday we headed to Haundae beach for the Sand Sculpting Festival and, of course, to take in the beach. It was a beautiful day involving sun, sand, swimming in the ocean, photos of giant sand-animals, Mexican food for lunch, Korean ice cream and dinner at lovely Thai restaurant with kittens frolicking on the ledge outside the window.
Sunday we took the KTX train back to Seoul and went to lovely Insadong for lunch and shopping before heading our separate ways- Dani back to Cheorwon, while I went on a mission at Technomart. I decided I wasn't leaving without a computer and so here I am finally able to blog again!

I would promise more updates soon but... chances are I'll forget again. So, maybe I'll update again soon.