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Published: August 18th 2006
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Sorry it' s been so long, I 've been insanely busy with work the last few weeks. We have been holding summer intensive courses for the past 3 weeks and it ' s been a bit crazy around here. Our schedules have been quite hectic: get up around 8 am, try to have a quick bite to eat, at school by 8:45, class from 9:30-12:30, lunch, gym or Korean class or work meetings (sometimes all three), class 4:20-10:20, dinner, bed. As you can see I haven 't had time for much else. Things get back to normal next Wednesday when our summer school classes end. Then we only work from 4:20-10:20 Monday through Friday. Not too bad.
A few updates though: we have started taking Korean classes through work and we have joined a gym!
The Korean classes are through work, a few of the Korean people that work for CDI (the 21 year old secretary, Chung Mihn, the head Korean teacher, Anderson and even the branch manager Mr. Hong) are teaching us. We have homework and quizzes … it 's like real school! Ha ha. I am, however, beginning to be able to read Korean.
Pat and I read a sign the other day that said sushi. We were so excited we went in and treated ourselves to a few rolls. Most of the time, though, we 'll read a sign and have no idea what actually it means. Oh well, at least we 're making progress!
The gym we joined is REALLY nice. They have a ton of equipment (brand new Cybex stuff), it 's really clean, it has a meditation room for after you work out (which I really like), they offer free Yoga, dance class and Tae-Bo, there 's TV's in all the cardio equipment (awesome!) and it 's just 3 floors above work. Everyone from work also joined as well as my friend, Pops, who 's here for two more weeks.
We' ve spent the last couple of weekends exploring Busan, Korea 's second largest city. It 's only like a 20 min bus ride away, and the bus costs a huge 3,000 (about $3). One weekend we went to Beomosa temple, and Nanjing fish market. The next weekend we went to Haundae beach, to a boardwalk-type amusement park and out to a delicious Chinese dinner (courtesy
of our work). Last weekend Pat and I went alone and visited this English bookstore that has a ton of books in English. We bought incentive prizes for our students (Shel Silverstein books in English with Korean footnotes for difficult words) and I got a few books myself. We also found a restaurant that served us insane amounts of food. We ordered Sashimi and ended up with a 4 course meal with cow tripe, squid, jellyfish, and tons of unnamable items. It was really good though. We 're used to random food on our table. I 'm not quite sure what 50% of what I eat actually is.
Other than that my life ' s been pretty normal. I was sick this last week, which was a drag, but now all that 's left is a little cough. I can' t complain. too much. I think I 'm going to take it easy this weekend. I 'm planning on going to a bath house on Saturday. There are bath houses everywhere and all you have to do is pay a few dollars and you can use it for the day. There 's saunas, hot mineral
baths, hot tubs… it's like a self-service spa kind of.
Okay, it' s about time to head home for the weekend. I can ' t wait!
Today in class some of the student misunderstood the assignement and ended up writing me letters about why I was so awesome … I thought it would be cute/funny to share them.
Dear Teacher,
Hi Ashley! I Trying not to look at you when I appear this academy first. But now I trying to look at you. Studying at CDI was best thing I could think of doing this summer vacation.
Erica
Dear Teacher,
I waited for Ashley to say something. Ashley, you teaching me was the best thing I could think of doing. The first class I didn 't know what you say. I kept thinking about you say what but now I know a little what you say you make me know what you say. So I think the best think is you teach me.
Rio
Hi Teacher,
Teacher knew me from when I was not in this class. Thank you very
much, I like you. I 'm waiting for you to next class. I want to next class with you. I miss you. Good bye.
Hi Ashley,
How are you. I' m fine and you? How use your Korean name Hye-Won and I waited for Ashley to speak Korean. I hoped to youp perfect finish Korean. Maybe so you do Ashley! I am the best thing I could think of teached by you. You 're good teacher. You always kind when I don 't know something and I couldn' t speak English. We 'll be finish summer vacation especially study during summer vacation. Thank you!
Runa
Just thought it was cute.
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