Super Bowl Mayhem

Hey all,

The past week was relatively uneventful. School was fully back on for all of last week and 3 days this week, but only half days of teaching so basically the same as during winter camp for me. I don't quite understand why the school schedule is set up the way it is, the students who are graduating have definitely been a little restless at school. Graduation for the 6th graders is on Thursday, I'm not quite sure what exactly happens during the ceremony, so I'm excited to see.

This past weekend was nice because everyone was back from their respective winter vacations. It was great to hang out with everyone after not seeing them for a few weeks and hear some fun stories from everyone's trips. This coming weekend is a long weekend for me because of the Lunar (Chinese/Korean) New Year celebrations so there is a possibility that I will be making a return visit to Japan with Alex and maybe Dave, which would be exciting. The only thing really holding us back is the traveling costs, which add up pretty quickly, depending on how much we want to see and do. If I don't end up in Japan, I'll definitely enjoy the few days off here.

Yesterday at school during lunch I was made a judge of a kimchi tasting contest, which was awesome. I got to taste test 8 different kinds of kimchi and choose which one I liked best and based on my judgment, the school kitchen would serve that kimchi for lunch during next school year (starting this March). It was a great and unique experience for sure. I also found out today that I'm going to have a new co-teacher starting in March. Thankfully she was already at my school and we get along very well so it should be a very smooth transition.

As some of you may know from talking with me over the course of yesterday, I wasn't able to watch the Super Bowl live because I had to teach. Dave, Alex, and I made plans to go in to Seoul to watch the game at night. I was extremely impressed with my self-control. I didn't see the score once! I even managed to tempt fate by checking out espn.com a few times, but didn't once feel the urge to look at the score. Good thing I remembered the /nhl or /nba or /mlb when I was typing. Dad almost ruined it for me as well by letting me know that they were going to be celebrating on Beale St. But, then I remembered that Beale St. is in Memphis, so I got over my momentary disappointment. Anyways, as soon as school let out, we all hurried in to Itaewon to the Rocky Mountain Tavern, a Canadian pub that was showing the game again at 7:30. We were worried it was gonna be uber-crowded, but we arrived early enough to grab seats. It was a completely different change of scenery. You never expect to be surrounded by other foreigners here, but that's what it was. It almost didn't seem real. It was as if we all teleported back to State Street Brats in Madison. The game was pretty enjoyable, although I must admit the Who looked pretty old on stage, which was a little upsetting. The atmosphere was great though. Nothing quite like wings, burgers, nachos, some tasty beverages and an American institution that I haven't missed since we moved.

That's all from this end!

iPod A-Z song update: "Stephen Stephen" by the Apples in Stereo.

Link of the day (in honor of Mom and Dad's run-in last week): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k4ZXzhwCkM