A Big Week

August is bringing about many changes. Just the fact that it is August alone, is pretty crazy. Four months have already passed since I've moved to Korea and everyday I am shocked at how fast the time is passing. I guess time really does fly when you're having fun. This is now the longest I've lived out of the US since I was 12...and it feels good! I really don't know how I will every be able to go back to life in the US. At this point, it seems impossible after living here.

Lots of stuff has happened this week. First of all, it was the first full week of teaching after coming back from vacation. I had one day of teaching last week which didn't seem bad at all, but it was also Friday. Then having a full week of teaching this week was exhausting. I forgot how much energy the kids take out of me. On top of that, this week was said to be the hottest week of the year in Korea. So by the time I walked to work, the heat had drained a lot of my energy. Then I had classes to teach and the combination just made it a tiring week. I also had my first visitor this week! Franzi, my childhood friend from Switzerland came to visit for the week on her way to Papua New Guinea. It's been so much fun to have her visiting and get to show her all the cool things about Seoul and Korea. I just feel bad that she came during our hottest week of the year.

So on top of those things happening, it was also the start of the new month at school which means change. Every month the school changes things around a bit. They get more students, lose more students, change our classes, change the curriculum, get other teachers...etc. This month we lost Shay, one of the foreign teachers from New Zealand. He had worked for his year contract and finished so he went home. It's hard to constantly be saying goodbye to friends who finish their contracts. With Shay leaving we gained another guy foreign teacher from Belgium. It's been interesting getting to know him this week. There has also been some moving of apartments because of teachers leaving our school. Baron, another foreign teacher at our school from the US moved into Shays apartment next door to Heather and me. That was an interesting day because his stuff was out in the hallway of our apartment all day and for the next few days. We also took some of his stuff into our apartment. (like we have room...) So all week it's been Heather, Franzi and me, and a bunch of Baron's stuff all in our one-room apartment. It's been kind of crazy. On top of that, Heather contracted bed-bugs somehow. So now we're trying to figure out how to get rid of her bed-bugs and cure all her bites.

On another note, I found an apartment to move into. It's been fun living with Heather, but we share a one room apartment, have no privacy, and practically live on top of each other. Surprisingly in the last four months we really haven't fought much and have learned how to peacefully co-exist in this small living space of ours. I'm sure we could last the year out, but our contract says that we can each have our own apartment. So when I found out that I couldn't move into Shay's apartment next door after he left, I decided to find my own apartment. I would have preferred to find something close to Heather, but thats not how it worked out. I did, however find an awesome apartment with another girl (from the US) right in the center of Seoul. It's a large, real apartment with bedrooms, bathrooms, a full kitchen, a livingroom, a little balcony and even access to the roof-top! I really couldn't ask for anything better other than the fact that I will now have to commute to school about 45 minutes on the subway each way every day. I will get used to that though. I think it will be good for Heather and I to have this space. Plus I am more social than Heather, so this will allow me to sow my social oats a lot more. :) I move tomorrow.