Counting down the days...

"Twelve down, like a hundred thousand left to go."

-Pittacus Lore

    It is terrible to see all the teachers on Facebook enjoying their lazy summers.  We lowly teachers here in Korea do not get that lovely 3 months off.  We do however get one glorious week off, and that week is exactly in 40 days.  That 40 days is going to feel like an eternity.  We have moved from the excitement of the beginning of the school year into the plateau of the boring middle of the school year phase.  My kids are now pushing boundaries and unfortunately we are unearthing some learning disabilities with a couple of them.  I've become super boring and have a very set schedule.  Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday I go to boxing after work and Tuesdays I have started a Korean class.

Last month it was Teacher's Day in Korea.  It used to be that this day was like Christmas for teachers here but since last year a new law was put in to place limiting gifts to government workers which include teachers (legally this does not refer to me as I do not work at a public school but the parents treat it the same).  So this year we got a lot of cute cards, and no presents.  My favorite was a handmade card from JiHo.  

How cute is that?!

With the nice weather we have also been able to go on some fun field trips to parks and gardens.

Look at this angel on her birthday!!!! I love the tongue through the teeth smile!

Every now and then my friends are able to convince me that hiking is good for me.  Let me tell you right now, it is not.  My friend Rachael returned to Korea for a visit so I agreed to go on this hike.  It ended being the hike from hell, but a beautiful hell.  It ended up being 7 hours long and I cried three times on this stupid mountain.

In the photo on the right, we had asked these guys to take a photo of us.  They instead accidentally took a selfie of themselves.

I was so angry, tired, and so excited to be off the mountain in this photo.

While Rachel was here we also visited the newly opened Lotte Tower.  That ladies and gentlemen is a glass floor on the 120th floor.  I had to close my eyes and crawl on the floor to get to the position I am sitting, heights are my Achilles heel. 

So that glass floor is 1,594 feet up in the air.

 Those lights in the middle of the bridge are actually the torch from the 1988 Summer Olympics which were held in Seoul.

Because we are about halfway through the school year, we had parent teacher conferences.  This is by far my favorite note that I have ever received from a parent.  It is such a weird thing to have a parent comment on the appearance of a student even if it is flattering.

 We had the super fun funny hat day.  You cannot tell from these pictures but I truly hate dress-up days at school.  Luckily the kids love them. Lindsey and I opted for children's summer hats and bright colored wigs.

Each month we have a student of the month and have to make a poster with a character of the child's choosing.  This might be my greatest artistic achievement yet.  

We had a random Tuesday off for Korean Memorial Day so we decided to head to a park on the West side of Seoul. Unfortunately it was pouring but luckily we got some cute pictures with a field of poppies. 

Lindsey and I also spent a weekend camping on a beach on the East coast of Korea.  It was a great relaxing weekend with reading on the beach, a campfire, and visiting a giant cave.

We now have a running joke in our office of putting this bunny in the most ridiculous poses.  This was the pose we left him in on my male co-workers desk on Friday night.

 Finally, this past weekend I returned for the third time to Seoraksan.  This time around I didn't do any hiking.  I took a cable car to the top of a mountain took some pictures and then took the cable car back down.  I then spent the rest of the day relaxing at our hotel.  Beth and Lindsey decided to hike a trail called dinosaur ridge. The hike is supposed to take 12 hours which sounded terrible to me.  They unfortunately took a wrong turn and ended climbing a giant peak that added an additional 6 hours to their hike.

In this tiny puddle on the top of a mountain, there were tadpoles.  Please explain to me how a from or a toad found this puddle to lay eggs in!

And last don't forget to buy your "old people stick" before hiking!

And that is my last month in a nutshell.  We have all decided that we need to take it easy for the next couple of weeks as we have spent way too much money lately.  Also only 40 days until Lindsey and I  embark on our adventure to China and Mongolia!