relaxing

Friday April 19th
OKC- 18 years.  Wow.
School went swimmingly. Always glad when it does that. No drama. Only one kid cried, and that is because she tripped. The day went really quickly. Actually the whole week did. It is amazing how quickly time is flying- its actually really scary. Time flew in NY, but here it seems to be on a different level. I guess that could be because I am still really new here. I did 2 of my classes lessons really quickly so I could play a game with the students. They have been wanting one for a long time. So I am glad we were finally able to do one. I wish I had better games for them. There are the standard games they have for us.... but in my mind, they are so lame. Granted, I am far older than these kids and entertaining me with educational games is a little more difficult.
It is Callums birthday, so we had dinner with him after work. We went to a Korean BBQ joint in Hongdae. It was good and cheap. I like good, and I like cheap. The environment was interesting too, anytime someone came in, all of the staff shouted hello in Korean and when they left all said goodbye in Korean.  When someone paged waitstaff, all of the waitstaff said yes in Korean. Needless to say there was a lot of shouting, but the service was really quick.
We left the restaurant and were walking,. We headed to Beer Market. We met up with one of Karens (Callums GF) friends. A nurse. Cute. So we all got a beer. I got a bottle of what I thought was beer. Nope. Cider. I am not a big cider fan, it is too sweet. Needless to say it sat in front of me for quite a while. Finally finished it, and got a Coopers Ale. It was good. We left and then Rob and Callum ran into someone they knew. So we all got a beer and GS and went to the park to drink it. So we all had our one beer in the park, but we were all there for probably an hour.
After the park, we went to Thursday Party. Ahhh. I really do not like that place. I am pretty sure I mentioned it in a previous post. Well it was just as bad as it was last time. I say bad, but what I really mean, is that it is not my type of scene. I can see how some people would really like it. I had no drinks there. Rob and I played a game of foosball. Callum and people showed no sign of stopping, so we said goodbye and caught the last train back to our part of Seoul.
Early night. Cheap night. But still a fun night.

Saturday April 20th.
I slept. I slept and woke up naturally feeling great! There are not many days I just sleep in without being woken up from either my alarm or the sunlight. She floormat I have hanging does a decent job of blocking out the sun in the morning. I cannot say I wake up feeling refreshed too often.
I did the Cartoon gig again today. It was a rainy day again. The first crowed was a decent crowd. The second crowd was okay, but a lot younger. My last crowd was small and really young. Since I am reading in English, it is tough for some kids. This time, we still did not blown up pictures or anything like that. We decided to only read the Ben 10 stories. They are shorter then the Power Puff Girls and have more pictures.
Hae-in and I talked more about what we could do to fix it. We came up with some good ideas. I also got to take some of the books home. I am going to edit them and send the edits over to her. We will then print up pictures to go with the stories. So excited to be doing this. I love teaching... and no 2 days are ever the same, but there are certain parts of my brain that teaching does not require me to use. This... well this stretches the other mental muscles I need and love to stretch. I just love being a part of something. One little girl today...I am gonna guess maybe 2 years. Had no idea what I was saying, but she was having a blast watching me and listening. Until the story just dragged on and she got bored. I love seeing kids smile and laugh. During one of the breaks, 2 girls came up to me (maybe HS age). It is awesome how excited people get when they talk to me in English and I talk to them back. I mean, I know once I learn Korean, I will feel the same way. Even moms try to get their little kids to say Hi to me, and the moms get so excited when I respond to the forced "Hello" from their kids.
At the reading today we had 2 characters from the TV show Adventure Time in costume. Jake and Finn. It was pretty fun.

As I was about to head to the subway, I hear whistles and drums coming from the street. Of course I had to check it out. I have no idea what it was, but the street was lined with police officers, and there was like a parade of wheelchairs and special needs people walking along the street blowing whistles and banging drums. Very interesting sight.
After that, when I got home, instead of going out, I decided I needed to clean my room. I got some pizza and a bottle of beer, and have been cleaning my room. The pizza was from Pizza School (so not great) and the beer is already warm, because I am not drinking it very fast.
Once I get my room clean... I hope I can keep it pretty clean. What gets me is taking out trash. Korea recycles. So I tend to make piles of stuff to recycle. Cans, Paper, Plastic, glass, Cardboard.... and it builds up, then gets intimidating, then it just sits. It was far easier to take out trash as a wasteful American where I just threw everything out together... or in NY where it is plastic glass in one bin and Paper products in the other. Here everything has its own bin... including food scraps (which luckily I do not generate).
So I am nibbling on Pizza, sipping on beer, and listening to music. Will call it an early night again tonight.