March Madness!!: It's Been A Long Long Long Time

Wow!  I bet some of you thought I might have given this blogging idea up, due to the long periods without any new posts.  The truth is nothing quite as awesome as a trip to Hong Kong and Macau or Thailand has happened recently.  Believe it or not, the winter vacation has ended and it's back to reality for me.  I know it was quite the shocker for me as well that I had to go back to work and do what I came here to do: teach English to elementary school students.  Yet here I am, 3 weeks into the new school year.  So again, I apologize for my prolonged absence on the world wide web, I am alive and well, just busier than I was the last few months.  So let me start with news from the new semester.

This year our school got eight new teachers because of the contract restrictions they have for teachers in Korea.  I think I explained this last year when I got my new co-teacher, but I'll go over it again.  Teachers can only work at one school for five years at a time, and as it turns out, after last year, our school had a few more teachers at the end of their terms than the year before.  One of the 6th grade teachers became a vice-principal (a situation sort of like in checkers when you make it to the other end of the board and get "kinged") and per tradition, we went to go visit her at her new school and got fed delicious fruits and rice cakes (a good use of a free afternoon if you ask me).  Another great tradition here is the goodbye dinner to wish all the departing teachers good luck and well wishes at their new schools, which is followed up by the welcome dinner the next week for the new teachers.  Both dinners were great, we went to the same place both times, which was fine with me, just lots of sushi.  I found out at the welcome dinner that most of the new male teachers were in their younger 30s and could speak pretty good English.  We bonded pretty well over dinner.  I now have a teacher who I can talk sports with at lunch, which is great.  We both love baseball and I can't wait to discuss the finer points of Choo Shin Soo's hitting abilities over some kimchi jjigae.  Another new male teacher graduated from Seoul National U. of Education a.k.a. Korea's Harvard so all the other teachers have been in awe of him since he started.  He's actually a really nice guy and speaks really good English, which is great because we're able to have some real conversations at lunch.  All in all, it's shaping up to be a good final 6 months at work.  Badminton has also started up again, which is good, although I've been quite rusty so far.  Hopefully I can get my swing mechanics back. 

In other news, the competitive frisbee season has taken off and we now have only a month to go until the Jeju tournament, so we're working hard to get in as many practices as we can before that date.  I've also been able to catch up on all the Oscar buzz worthy movies, which made it to Korea post-Oscars just like last year.  I've seen Black Swan, The Fighter, 127 Hours, and just saw The King's Speech this afternoon.  I enjoyed them all but I didn't think The King's Speech should have won Best Picture.  Don't get me wrong, it was very good, a little slow in the beginning, but it wasn't quite as good or different as Social Network or Black Swan.  I've been busy studying for the 2nd part of the GRE's, 3 months to go, and working hard to expand my vocabulary.  I forgot how hard it is to learn new words, but I'm back to making note cards and making good headway.  On the concert front, the MGMT concert is coming up soon, April 1st, and March was packed with quite the variety of shows in Korea, the Eagles, Santana, and Iron Maiden (I didn't see any, too expensive). 

And how could I forget March Madness?  Robyn-  So sorry your Trojans had to bow out in the play-in round (you can't win them all, right?).  I woke up a little early this morning to catch the Badgers second round game against Kansas State and what a game it was.  I personally didn't expect them to make it to the Sweet 16, but here they are and I hope they win what should be a tough game against the Butler Bulldogs.  Also very excited for the baseball season to start, happy to hear that Mauer caught his first game yesterday.  We have our Korea crew fantasy baseball league all set to go, and the league drafts next Sunday night, which should be a lot of fun. 

I've also been busy reading the last month and a half, flying through Keith Richards' autobiography, a Mickey Mantle biography, and now I'm currently reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, the final book in the Millennium trilogy and it has been even more of a page turner than the first two books. 

Finally I want to give an enormous shout out to ma maman, mi madre, my mom Randi, who completed her radiation treatments last week and has done an incredible job persevering through many tough months.  Mom, we all love you and are extremely happy to know that you've made it this far with only minor discomforts. 

That's all from this end, GO BADGERS!!

What I'm listening to: "Let It Down" by George Harrison
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6sPkLm0pWU
Other good music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yvbrw_RjwI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX1PwkgwsG0