In Recent News...

Another former president has died in the year that I've been here. The first by suicide and the most recent of natural causes. When a person of some importance dies here, they set up special places at city halls and major areas in every city in the country. They put up a big picture of the person who died surrounded by flowers with a mat in front of it so the person coming to pay his respects can take off his shoes when approaching the memorial. Each person bows to the picture, then to the people attending to it before leaving. Usually there is a place for people to burn incense for them, as well. Here's a picture of what one typically looks like: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/news/090528_p01_roh.jpg

In other news, I had a good weekend with my former HF student, Edwin, in what was our last time together for quite a while, at the very least. He's leaving to study in China for a year and I'll be heading back to America. We met Saturday afternoon, spent two hours doing karaoke, had pizza, gamed for two hours and spent an hour or so swimming and relaxing in the hot tubs at the sauna where we spent the night. In the morning, we gamed together for about four hours before having lunch at Subway and saying our final goodbyes. I'm realizing it's really not gonna be easy saying goodbye to so many people that I care about when I leave for America.

I already have my ticket for the States and I've been busy with my students planning when to meet for our last time together. Also realizing that I've got only three Sundays left to go to the church where I've been attending for over a year and the first church where I've felt like I really belong in my whole life.

Things have been pretty normal at IPTT. Everybody knows I'm leaving now and then little kids are celebrating while the older kids are all telling me how sad they are and they don't want to think about it. hehe I was walking the same way back home last night with three students from my oldest class. I bought them ice cream and we spent about 40 minutes talking outside. The girl had to leave a bit earlier but was really upset when she found out I was leaving soon. She's one of my favorites cause she tells me that I'm handsome. lol

Around the school, swine flu is the biggest topic of conversation, beating out all the latest pop hits and dramas, which is nothing short of a miracle. About 2,000 people have been infected here in Korea, including 188 in one day recently. All of the students are required to wash their hands before coming to class and I've been giving students drops of purell. :P

Yesterday, we talked about NYC in SP-B and Cody was talking about the "free lady with ice cream" when describing the Statue of Liberty. Some of the things they say and the way they say them often really crack me up. Wish I could remember all of them but, alas, my memory is terrible.

Today was a bit of a long day cause I had to get up early to go to Seoul for my Chinese visa. That was an experience in itself. It takes an hour and a half to get to Seoul so it's no easy trip. The website I was reading from China told me to go to the embassy in Seoul and had rather indescript directions as to where exactly it was. I got to the subway stop and started out walking where I thought it should be. So I walked....and walked....and walked....and couldn't find it. So I walked another way....and walked....and walked....and still nothing. So I asked a policeman and he pointed me in the right direction. I finally got there only to find out that I had to go to another part of Seoul to the Chinese consulate.

After a taxi ride through heavy traffic, I got to the area where it was supposed to be. More walking back and forth and after asking a guy in a convenience store....I never found it. Instead, I settled for a tourist company that only does Chinese trips and gave them my information and let them take care of getting the visa.

After getting some KFC to go for lunch, I managed to get back to Osan just in time to make it to work. Could post more but gotta get back to my long list of things to do:
-Book a room at a hostel in Beijing
-Get more details for my plan of getting around Beijing
-Respond to two emails from the new teachers who want to know what life's like at IPTT
-Try to find a job in America
-Plan my short trip to Japan

Until next time...ciao!