Highlights of my Day... Week, kind of (May 4-7)

1. A teacher of mine once told me that every day has a lesson to be learned and if there was anything I was to learn this week it’d be that the perfect form of birth control is other people’s kids. I had been forewarned that Tuesday’s group of kids would be the worst and they were. I don’t think it was so much that the kids were bad though, I blamed it on the classroom that was bubbling over with an overload of distractions. It was more like an arobecs room-- mirrors covering one of the walls, loud wooden floors, stacks of equipment lining another wall, and way too much space. Kids were all over the place, I’m talking about jumping on the tables, hiding under the curtains and equipment, and spinning on the chairs. I left Tuesday’s classes seriously asking myself, “Why do people have kids?”

2. So why do people have kids – honestly. I get the sense that here in Korea couples have kids because they feel it’s the next expected step in life, but what about the rest of the world? I still can’t shake the whole “children equal burden” idea and am trying to be open-minded about the whole thing but after a week of in-your-face, on-the-verge-of-demon-like, chaotic children, the idea of people wanting to have kids sounds crazier than the crazy kids I had to deal with this week.

3. Wednesday was Children’s Day here in Korea. Snickers and I renamed it “Demon Day” and, thanks to Demon Day, I couldn’t do any of my prep work for my substitute classes or language group because all the stores I needed to go to were closed.

4. My early morning language group continues to be an interesting point of my days. This week another member joined my group bringing the group total to me and six Korean guys.

5. This week my schedule has been packed but it’s nothing compared to the week that I’ve planned for next week. Thank God it’ll all be over next week. This week, my schedule has pretty much consisted of the following schedule:

6am – wake up
7:40am to 8:30am – language morning group
9:30am to 10:30am – private tutoring (twice a week)
11am – go running and/or prep work for teaching
1pm – head out to Seoul
3pm to 6pm – substitute teaching in Seoul
7:30pm – return to Cheonan
8pm to 9:30pm – boxing and weight training
11pm – go to sleep

6. Friday I didn’t have to be out at the community center in Seoul until 4pm. It was smooth sailing out to the center but coming home was a whole different situation!!! I had rushed to Gangnam Express Bus Terminal to buy a ticket home. It was 7:40pm but the next bus ticket available was for a 9:40pm bus – ouch!!! I ended up rushing over to the Nambu Bus Terminal and getting a 8:20pm ticket – score—mind ya, the bus was scheduled to do a couple of stops before Cheonan.

7. This week has been a hard week and it’s been frustrating. I’ve been too busy trying to juggle so many things, so it was easy to let things get to me. Friday morning I found myself slipping into ‘nagging wife mode’ and I was hating it. I am not a nagging wife but on Friday morning I found myself getting upset over the silliest of silly things. Snickers’ socks never seem to find their way to the hamper, he’s notorious for ‘dropping-drawers’ and leaving them in the middle of the floor, and he’s rather lazy when it comes to cleaning up, and Friday this all came up over the breakfast I had rushed to cook while he got in extra time sleeping.

8. Friday night was supposed to be a date night for Snickers and I. I was really needing a break after the week of chaotic children I had been dealing with all week and Snickers was needing a break too. Snickers agreed to a two-week-only job with a construction company, so he’s been coming home tired every day, not to mention beyond exhausted after boxing. Snickers chasing down my bus and showing up at one of it’s stops was totally not expected but so appreciated though! I was all smiles from ear to ear!!! It’s things like this that Snickers does, things so unexpected but so incredibly sweet, that so easily remind me I need to chill and look at how good I have it. I have an awesome man and, despite his boxer briefs constantly sitting in our family room floor like a piece of furniture and his ‘one-shot’ cleaning mentality, he’s a gorgeous man who is the perfect match for me; he balances me out. We ended up having out Friday night date night after all. It wasn’t at all as expected but it was great. It consisted of singing and chatting on the car ride home from Cheonan and then eating some ice cream outside at some random high school. It was sweet, simple – perfect!

9. In unrelated news, this week I learned how to make my own version of my much-loved garlic green peas, I tested out that dip that Jennipal posted but really didn’t care for it, must have itched my eyes about a thousand and one times because of the change of seasons, and went fire-hunting on Friday night after my date with Snickers.

10.While on route home, we spotted a fire from the highway, so we decided to check it out. It was almost midnight and there before my eyes was an apartment fire some floors up from where we were standing. I watched as the fire truck broke the apartment’s windows with the blast of the water and then, when they ran out of water, more fire trucks arrive on the scene. People in the neighboring apartments were curiously looking out their windows as the smoke from the one apartment on fire engulfed the others.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
How was your week?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
I've learned that you can't have everything and do everything at the same time.
-- Oprah Winfrey