Update

Here's the scoop.

I haven't taught an after school class at school since December. Our program finished right before Christmas and won't start up again until March. To fill the time, we have been prepping for the next term's classes. We also held a winter camp.

Winter camp was two weeks long. I was asked if I wanted to work mornings, afternoons, or both. If I worked just one shift I would have received my normal pay. I opted for both shifts since I would be paid for 40 hours of overtime over the course of two weeks. The hours were the same as a normal workday, 8:40 to 4:40, but we taught two 80 minute classes per session. I was stuck teaching music class. The class consisted of teaching the names of musical instruments, and learning how to play songs with hand bells. One benefit of working both shifts was that the school paid for lunch. I was able to try a few new foods that I liked.

After camp finished, I had to update all of my lesson plans and come up with topics for next semester. This was nice because I was able to decide what topics would be covered. My favorite idea was that the 5th and 6th grade classes will be a current events class based on different news articles falling under 12 different themes. At the end of the semester the class will either produce a short new program or newspaper.

During the break I also bought a car. I found it on craigslist. It is a 1995 Hyundai Accent. The girl I bought it from teaches at a university and had upgraded to a new car. I was able to pick it up for less than $600. I had to register it at the Korean DMV by myself, which was fun because no one there spoke English. I also had to pay for a year's worth of insurance, which ended up costing more than the car. After I got it registered I bought a navigation system. It is pretty amazing. It works in both Korean and English, and has a lot of features like a DMB player, which plays the wireless tv channels. It also can tell me where gas stations are and what the prices are for gas. I'm excited because this is the first time I have personally owned a car, and I was able to pay for everything in cash. It took a chunk out of my savings but the overtime pay from camp help to offset that a little. It also opens up many parts of Korea to me without having to worry about bus schedules and navigation.

I've also gone to two fishing festivals. The first one was a bust because there wasn't much else to do and I didn't catch anything. The second one I went to was the one I went to last year. While I was ice fishing I didn't manage to catch a fish, but I did manage to catch another ice fishing pole that someone had thrown in the water. The highlight of this fishing festival was that I got to compete in the bare hands fishing contest again. This time around my luck was better. After a few minutes of being in the freezing water and having completely numb hands, I was finally able to grab onto a fish. It was a decent size, but I was angry that I couldn't hold onto one that was much bigger before. This weekend I will go to the Inje Ice fishing Festival, where instead of fishing for trout I will fish for something called Bingeo. It's a smalled fish that Koreans fry up and eat whole or serve in a stew. It looks like they are easier to catch and that I should be able to catch many of them. Next month there is a Pollack festival as well that looks like a lot of fun.

Next week I will travel to the DMZ again. This time I will go to the wetlands area. I was selected to take part in an event for World Wetlands Day. A group called the Korea Marine Environment Management Corporation is paying for the trip. All I have to do is write a three page photo journal after the trip. I found out about the event this weekend and applied on Monday. They contacted me back and confirmed today that I was selected. Not many people travel into the DMZ wetlands.

Sometime next month I will take a two week vacation. I'm not sure yet what I will do or where I will go. I want to try to travel outside of the country. The Philippines may be a possibility. I will probably go to some museums as well, since there are some interesting exhibits during the next few months. Me and some friends won tickets to the Inca exhibit in Seoul by dancing at a basketball game. There are also some art exhibits, like the Andy Warhol exhibit, the Monet to Picasso exhibit, and the Italian Renaissance exhibit.

Hockey playoffs will start soon, and the Anyang Halla are sitting in first place in the league with two games left. Hopefully they win out and clinch home field advantage so I can catch some playoff games.

I think that just about catches you up to date. I'll try to post some picture here soon. I might just include links to photo albums online, since the slideshows can kind of slow down the frontpage of the blog.

My Apartment

Here's some cell phone pics of my apartment. I'll take some with my camera later.