happy happy MAY to you all (the best month of the year, really)

i promise (i promise, i promise ... ) the apartment tours/photos are coming soon! once we get around to putting them together, of course.

that being said, life in our new pad is great. we are sincerely enjoying the three bedrooms + two verandas + two tv (!!!) set up we've got going on. we've scheduled a much needed house-warming party for next monday, and invited our co-teachers and new friends over for celebratory drinking. monday is perfect, you see, because we've got tuesday off for "children's day". this makes me laugh, only because i remember asking as a kid, in relation to mother's day and father's day - "mom, when's kid's day?" to which the quickly quipped response was always: "children's day is everyday." welp, in korea, it's may 5th, and it means a holiday for us. wuhoo!

our weekdays have fallen into a routine of sleeping in until 11am, making bacon and eggs, getting ready for the day, and going into school for 1:30pm. can't complain! next week, we'll start teaching our newly added class of grade nines, which should be interesting. 6 classes back-to-back for me, in one day! let's see how it goes ... teaching in general is always interesting. the classes i like versus the classes i dislike are slowly becoming definitive. the grade 1/2 class i have first thing on alternating days is quickly starting to stand out as a least favourite! in a class of 10, seven of the children are well-behaved, likeable, and seemingly adorable. three, on the other hand, are nightmares, and overturn the entire class! seriously, what to do with a 6-year-old who doesn't speak english and swipes all of his notebooks all over the floor and doesn't listen to ANYTHING is say? i spent about 3 minutes playing tug-o-war with him over his pencil case that he continues to empty all over the table, and not clean up, and bang around all of its contents, and disrupt everything .... then i figured that leveling with a 6-year-old wasn't really on my agenda, and i gave up. time to shame him! (also known as, making him stand in the corner with his hands in the air for however long i please. i figure it's a much more humanitarian version of hitting them with the stick. which, as a reminder, is permitted).

this weekend it's supposed to rain - AGAIN. we were adventurous and headed into seoul last weekend despite the torrential downpour. we wandered around myongdong's shopping district with shanna and dave, where i had to do my best to be frugal in the home decoration stores (all i want to do is decorate our apartment!). i managed to get away with a fancy toothbrush holder that suctions to the wall, and a pack of 30 cat postcards (seriously, less lame than they sound, despite what my sister had to say). the cats are all posing in well-known pics! mona lisa, girl with a pearl earring, marilyn monroe ... kitschy-cute. there was a massive veto on mark's behalf for their original post above the tv on our living room wall. fine fine, they've been relocated instead to above the kitchen table, where they now decor with cat-pride. yes! after venturing to myongdong, we took the subway to hongdae around dinner time, with intentions of experiencing the much-heard-about ice bar and other night life. needless to say, after a day of wandering in the rain and umbrella-jammed streets and being soaked in general, an ICE BAR probably wasn't the best idea. we paid 15,000 won to get in (one drink included) and ended up being the only people in there! pretty sure the koreans who worked there were laughing at us ... regardless, we got some good photo ops, and shanna and i complained enough to the boys to depart after the one drink. that day, we also relished some delish home food - burgers from craze burger, and mexican from dos tacos! one wouldn't think the koreans could do mexican (and believe me, the mexicans can't do japanese, so go figure) but, oh, so, delicious! i suppose you can never really complain about a 6000 won (under $6 CDN) meal anyway.

speaking of mexican, my grade 5 class today was asking how many canadians have died from "pig inpluenza" - i was all, wtf?? swine flu!? how entertaining that not only are they up-to-date with international news, but also that it translates as such. the engrish just makes it that much more humourous. apparently, we've lost 4 koreans to it. yikes! not that i'm one to joke about international epidemics, or anything ... heh.

we were hoping to explore more of seoul this weekend, but the rainy spring weather is keeping us close to home. not really enthusiastic about a day of rain-wandering again, thankyouverymuch. we've convinced dave and shanna that uijeongbu noraebongs are more inclement-weather-friendly, so we're going to cruise around the downtown area tomorrow night.

last night, we experienced the korean movie theatre, and went to see wolverine. yay to english movies with korean subtitles! we were probably more smitten (or mark was) with the infinite arcade within the movie theatre. suddenly, the ubiquitous "crane game" is mark's new obsession. we've already accumulated two (ahem, useless) toys, and i'm sure there are many more to come as he insists on having a go at every machine he sees (which are conveniently located on every.single.corner.) i, on the other hand, was taken with the option of having both sweet AND salty popcorn at the movies. hello, caramel corn! it's also convenient that koreans have no idea about jacked-up movie concession prices. a huge tub of popcorn for less than $4.50 CDN! seriously, unheard of in the western world.

alright, time for bed for me; apartment pics to come in the next 48-72 hours, promise.
love you, MISS you! xoxo