Safe and Sound/Sãos e salvos

It's Big Test week! ECC divides its calendar into 28-day sessions, and we have a "big test" for each class at the end of each session. "Big Test" essentially just means a review of everything covered that session, but it's still a "big deal" to the kids. It can also be a big deal for us, as we have to schedule book reports, review, a speaking test, the actual written "big test," and sometimes an iTest (meaning the "integrated skills test") within the last three days of each class. It can be a little chaotic figuring it all out for the first time, but once you do, it can be pretty smooth sailing if you have all of your tests photocopied and ready to go. Joel and I have both had to do some scrambling as we learn by doing, but hopefully next month will be smooth sailing, as we should be familiar with everything by then.

The other great thing about the end of the session is that, starting Thursday, we no longer have to come into work four hours early! Everyone has to come in at 11 a.m. during their first session of teaching, which means that on long days we go from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. It has given us time to prepare for classes, and it usually goes by quickly, but it has still been pretty tiring. Now we will finally have extra time to do things like run errands, work out, and have a little bit of leisure time.

Speaking of errands, our co-workers were nice enough to take us to the local outdoor produce market this weekend. It's really pretty cool - it has everything I envisioned in an outdoor market and more: your standard battery of fruits, vegetables, and nuts, plus second-hand clothes, ten-kilo bags of garlic, butcher shops, seafood vendors (octopus, fish, eels, and massive mussels - oh yes), and a kind of dollar store.

More importantly, Joel and I were talking this weekend about the fact that this place is finally starting to feel like home. We are settled into our apartment (with a beautifully coordinated bathroom, might I add), we've made some friends, and we know where just about everything is in the area. I know the neighborhood well enough to go running in the mornings, and my co-worker recommended a yoga studio. We've even found a Catholic church close by.

I finally unloaded some pictures from the camera onto the laptop, but is Joel's official responsibility to post them...somewhere...for your viewing pleasure (except for maybe my pictures of Mudeung mountain). If you want to see them, bug him!

A Place to Call Home/Nosso Próprio Lar

We finally get to move into our permanent apartment! After four weeks of living out of suitcases in a transitional apartment, our permanent apartment provided by the school will be ready for us to move into on Saturday morning - just 36 glorious hours! Now all that stands between me and a rocking move-in cleaning extravaganza is a long teaching day tomorrow. Rejoice and be glad!

We are now in the full swing of teaching - planning lessons, making exams, disciplining kids and spending our own hard-earned money on choco pies for them. Ah yes, the teacher's life. It's such an interesting experience - on some days, I start with six-year-olds who know about twenty words of English and finish with middle school punks just itching to run out the door. Oh, the joys.

One nice thing has been getting to know the neighborhood. Our neighborhood is called Bongseon-dong ("dong" meaning "neighborhood"), and it is packed with fabulous restaurants, clothing boutiques, coffee and ice cream shops, and hogwans (private English academies). Joel and I have tried a different restaurant almost every night for dinner and have rarely been disappointed. They have everything from "Chicken and Hof" to traditional Korean soup restaurants, Korean porridge restaurants, ethnic food, and conveyor-belt sushi places. It is truly a culinary mecca.

Last weekend I took a day trip to hike up Mudeung Mountain. I will try to post pictures this weekend!