Life is good.

Yesterday, I spent over an hour writing a beautifully written, wonderful blog - complete with pictures and captions, the works.  Okay, so maybe it wasn't a phenomenal blog, but still, I had spent quite some time on it.  However, little did I know that blogspot would conspire with my computer to hate me that day and not save my work and then cause Firefox to crash. So this is round two and let's hope I can get it done.  I know I've been a blogging slacker as of recent, but I would like to think that it's because I'm just so busy with teaching and having fun that I haven't had a chance.  Anyway, I'll try to get back on the bandwagon of writing regularly just for you.

Okay, I don't know how else to put this, but life is just so good right now.  I tried to think of a better, more eloquent word, but good just fits.  Nothing extremely extraordinary has happened, but nothing negative has happened either.  However, I don't want to get this confused with me being complacent, bored, or blah.  I'm still having grand adventures, meeting new people, and really living.

I'm just happy.

June was a hard, slow month, but since mid-July, I have just been enjoying myself so much.  It may be because I've hit the halfway mark and know I only have 6 months left to live it up here, but I like to think it's just because life is working out.  At home, while I'm missing so much, I'm okay with that right now - people are healthy, wedding ceremonies are happening, graduations and accomplishments are being celebrated, and pregnancy is spreading like the plague (in the best possible way!). Halfway across the world, I'm celebrating all of that through skype calls and email, while having my own adventures and celebrations. God has continuously provided throughout this entire journey: amazing friends, safe adventures, wonderful school, and so much more.

See? life is good.

A few highlights since China:

School
Wait, what? School is a highlight? Why yes it is.  The longer I'm here, the more I realize how amazing my school treats me. They don't overwork me, they are welcoming, and while I know teaching is not my passion, I love my girls.  After China, I finished up "summer camp" which was basically an after school class for almost 2 hours 3 times a week with 11 2nd graders (high school juniors).  The only guidelines I had for curriculum was to make it fun and English based.  So, bring on the movies and snacks - the theme was "Let's Get Famous" and we played games, watched Glee and She's The Man, and each group made their own short movie. Now we're in full swing of 2nd semester, and I have the same schedule with meeting with new teachers for teacher workshops.

One of my 12 classes of 1st grade girls...can you find me? haha it's not hard!

The first week back to school I decided to make it fun and mostly games.  I showed pictures of my trip to China and we played 2 games that they all loved.  It was one of my favorite classes I've taught thus far.  One of the games was "Who Am I?" where they had to write down a famous person on a piece of paper, then draw from the pile and hold it up to their head without looking.  Then they needed to ask yes/no questions (in English of course!) trying to figure out who was on their head.  About 85% of each class really got into it, which is rare!

The other game was called "Story Pass" I remember doing something like this at some point in school and decided to modify it for my classes.  Each group got a paper that said "Once upon a time..." When instructed, they had 2 minutes to start a story.  When I said "Time's UP!" they had to pass their paper to the next table, and then had 2 minutes to read the story they received and add to it.  Needless to say, I got some hilarious stories at the end of the day!

SO into Story Pass!

Theresa Visits!
A recent highlight was the week-long visit of a friend, Theresa, from the States! I worked with her last summer at Kidder and she came all the way to Korea for fun! We had a great time of eating Korean BBQ, waffles, letting her come to school with me, and so much more! Visitors are amazing.

BBQ where the owner ended up cooking our meat for us!

they loved her hair!

After dinner we stumbled upon a K-pop concert downtown - we ended up unintentionally seeing MBLAQ, a pretty popular kpop band!

MBLAQ

The unexpectedly wonderful weekend.
Body Paint Festival, IAAF World Championships, and Herb Hillz.
You know those weekends where you know that you have plans but you don't really have high expectations for the events?  This was one of those.  We had bought tickets to the IAAF (track&field) World Championship Opening Ceremony months ago, but I definitely didn't know what to expect.  First, Amy and I stopped by the International Body Paint Festival in Duryu Park.  We saw a runway show with costumes and paint which was okay, but nothing phenomenal (kinda weird, actually) and stumbled upon the area where they were doing full body paint which was really neat!

sign in Duryu Park

Body Paint Festival!

cutest little dog!

Without even time for dinner, Amy and I rushed off to meet Holly for the opening ceremony for the IAAF World Championships - It ended up being amazing! I didn't know what to expect, but it was phenomenal - good job, Daegu!  After the ceremony we were able to stay in the stadium and watch the events for the evening.  We stayed for qualifiers for high jump, women's 200m, hammer throw, long jump, and the final for women's 10,000m.

outside the stadium - that character has been plastered all over Daegu for months!

Pre-ceremony entertainment.

Opening Ceremony!

The president of Korea was there and spoke!

Huge balloons being released!

Women's 200m Qualifier

It was a late night of drinks and dancing downtown after the ceremony, but so worth the lack of sleep.  The next morning there was a small group of friends going to Herb Hillz, which is a small theme park.  By theme park, I don't mean like Disneyland - I mean it has the theme of herbs and weird things.  We decided it was about 80% tacky/cheesy areas and decorations and 20% cute. However, they do have an "Eco-Adventure" which are multiple courses that contain a combo of zip-lining and high ropes challenges.  Being afraid of heights, I was terrified most of the time (especially when one of the platforms had a swarm of the largest bees I've ever seen - and it was before one of the most difficult challenges so you couldn't even get away quickly!).  It was so much fun and I'm glad I conquered it!!

Kate (Loren's sister who is visiting from Australia) and I - we're much higher up than it looks!

ready to conquer!

one of the hardest challenges!! so wobbly!

Zip-lining!

Co-Pop. Coke in the bottom, popcorn chicken on top. Genius.

It was a wonderful day of adventure, being outdoors, and just getting out and doing something productive with my day.  You can probably understand a little better of why I'm just so joyful.  I feel if I don't keep a positive attitude, then I'm cheating myself.  Each day I'm being presented with little challenges, joys, struggles, hilarious moments, weird interactions, and cultural differences.  If I don't appreciate these with a smile and a laugh, what am I gaining? absolutely nothing. I'm going to keep being joyful.

"Joy is the feeling of grinning inside." - Melba Colgrove