Day 21-Almost a MONTH :O

*Hello hello* (the English lines to my favourite Korean song).  I am becoming more and more fond of Korean music and it MAY be because one of my friends here loves it off and plays it every time I see her, OR maybe it is because I am embracing newness....either way I like it!  You must youtube the song "Hello" by SHINee, lemme know what you think! I love ittt!!

On another note, there are many things that continue to amaze me about Korea;

1) How old people are and yet how active and strong they must be to carry around HUGE carts of food all day...See this cart?

Imagine it made of wood with more food on it....dang

 Now imagine this woman pulling it....That is what I see every day.

All I can say is: Jack Show

2) How community minded most people seem to be.  Example today we had water gun play day and the kids all got soaking wet as they shot each other with their water guns.  Afterwards all the teachers took their kids into their homeroom class and the kids basically got naked and changed in front of each other, helping one another fold their clothes and change.  Do we do that in North America IN the school system? I was caught off guard a little.

3) How you can see the same people walking down the streets everyday and they continue to be fascinated by you (in other words, must continue to stare....for LONG periods of time).

4) How Koreans can go out eating almost every day and still stay the size of my index finger.

5) How a person can be sitting on a bus and if you have the window seat and they have the isle they will not get up and move for you, you must fend for yourself.  (This idea I get because most people are super tiny here and therefore they can get up and easily cross by...with some people that is sadly NOT the case).

6) How it can be SUPER hot and rain at the same time being humid and nasty the entire time it rains (for days).

These are a few things that have been coming to mind my past few days here as I have been exploring more and seeing more things.  Honestly I am amazed at how culture is such a huge thing, I mean OBVIOUSLY it is but since I have been in North America for such a long period of time I have never really been able to see a completely new way of life. 

Today at school we had the last two periods of the Kindergarteners off because we had WATER GUN PLAY DAY! It was a pretty good time and luckily for me I was assigned the role as the MC and therefore didn't get TOO wet.  The kids are ADORABLE and the more I get to know them, the more I enjoy their presence and what they have to offer.  Honestly, these kids are brilliant...the fact that they go to school in a completely different language and are able to communicate is outstanding, not only that but read and write (at the age of 4+5).  CRAZINESS!!!

Best War Faces EVER

I am starting to finally get the hang of how things run and I have done my FIRST lesson planning for the next two weeks which I have a feeling may be a struggle for the first little while :P.  Slow and steady wins the race right? ( That is what I must cling to in order to feel adequate).  My coworkers are super helpful and patient with me and I cannot imagine getting a job with a school where I would be the only foreign teacher...ahh how do some people do it? I guess there would be pros and cons to each. 

After school yesterday I left right away and headed into Seoul for midweek and to my surprise I was only 30 minutes late.  OMGOSH I loved it, I was able to hang out with incredible people, eat a superb mini pizza thing and some mocha bun (delicious) and stand on the bus almost the ENTIRE way home.  The subway ride is something I am not sure I will ever get used to, being SQUEEZED into a tiny space is not a comfortable feeling...add no air-conditioning and  wandering hands to the picture..WORST.   However as time continues I can only hope to one day be able to embrace the other thousands of sweaty people I am feeling crushed by.  On a side note, whenever I see Korean people sweat I get a little happy...honestly most of the people here ALWAYS look amazing and they never seem to sweat but the few times it DOES happen is what I cling to when I think about how bad I get sometimes. 

The Escalators are on a whole Notha Level...

Speaking of sweat... the Korean weather is a little bit hectic lately with super hot days with NO sun because it is covered by the million layers of clouds.  However, the mornings are usually a little cooler on my way to school which is a lovely encouraging gift from above :P.  Honestly though, it gets soo hot and humid that it sometimes is difficult to breath, I hear that after a year it gets better...A WHOLE YEAR. 

On another note, I am enjoying myself more and more here as time unfolds.  I have my core group of friends who are super supportive and encouraging, I have my church family, I have my "favourites" in the classrooms and I have been getting some good reviews by the parents.  Finally things seem to be fitting in the right place and it is probably due to the fact that I stopped worrying.  I am learning that worrying and being anxious does nothing positive for a person and when I worry I am basically saying that the plan for my life does not exist. 

Surrendering really is the key to happiness because as soon as I have been able to do that, I am finding myself in a place where I feel content and happy with what is going on with my life and excited to see what the future unfolds. Yay for progress!!