Catch-up

So it has been a while since I last wrote. The weeks have still been pretty uneventful, I wake up, teach, go home, have dinner, and go to bed. There hasn't been too many crazy things happening in my classes so nothing really to write about. Two weekends ago, Nikki (climbing friend that hurt her ankle and couldn't climb) and I decided to take things easy. We got up and made sure the people that were meeting up found each other and then we went in search for something to do. We found a theater where we watched "Knowing." I suggest that if you go see this movie that you are prepared for seeing things in the first person. The movie is pretty devastating and graphic, so heads up. Then we headed to the beach where I played so beach ball and Nikki caught some rays. A friend met us up there and we just took in all the glory that is Haeundae Beach. Later on we met up with our climbers and had dinner at an amazing Mexican restaurant at PNU. I had to leave pretty early bc i had to take a subway to the bus station and then a bus home. The bus stops running at 10.

Saturday the 19th I spent all day interviewing kids for a free trip to study abroad in Canada. I had some kids that spoke English okay and others that just sat there and stared at me. It was definitely an experience. Later I met up with Jin and Nikki and we watched another movie. Movies are much cheaper her than back home and the concessions as well.

This past weekend was the Korea on the Rocks (KOTR) Spring Meet and Greet. It was held at Seonunsan where I got to watch Chris Sharma climb and meet him. I almost didn't go because the weather was supposed to be bad all weekend. After some talking with some other people we decided it would be fun regardless so I made the long trip again. It was cold as can be but didn't really rain on us, it thought about it a couple of times but didn't. I got to climb a couple of routes but it was so cold that it was painful and you couldn't tell what your fingers where touching. I did though, the last day I was there led for the first time outdoors. Scared me to death but it was a pretty easy route and I felt pretty good about it. I got lucky and got to ride back in a car (for free, they wouldn't take gas money) with one of the older Korean climbers that is amazing and speaks English pretty well. I got home late and was super tired to I allowed myself to take a taxi home. Funny thing, it was the same cab driver that drove me home the weekend or so before!!

Wednesday I only had two classes so I left early to meet up with a Korean friend that was going to help me get me Korean Driver's license. It was a pretty funny process to get my DL. First I walked in and handed them my passport and DL from the states. They handed me a sheet of paper and told us to go across to the next building for the medical check. The medical check consisted of an eye test, opening and shutting my fingers into a fist, and squatting down and standing back up. Then I paid my money for the tests and they stamped my application (that is in Korean) about 30 times. Then, we went back to the other building where I paid for some money stamps and decided I wanted to take the written test instead of the driving test. I almost didn't pass the test because it was in Konglish (Korean translated directly over to English with sentence structure completely wrong and word usage being way sub-par) and a lot of the questions were very hard to understand. I did pass and I do have my Korean DL so that's really all that matters, right?

Today we had the Children's Day track meet. All the kids and their parents participated in a track-meet-type thing with activities that were pretty funny to watch. I watched a middle-aged business man in full suit and dress shoes run a relay, face plant on gravel/dirt, and get up and finish the race. I'll post pictures and video probably later this weekend.