A Wrinkle in Time

Three days ago I changed my calendar over to the month of April, thanking the Lord that my class of 7 boys don't know what April Fool's Day is.  Then yesterday I looked back over at it.  Oh my gosh--it's already April!!!

Usually March drags by...it's that dreary month where some days tease you with a taste of spring only to throw you right back into the cold depths of winter the next...and by March I'm SO over winter (especially cloudy, rainy winter) it just seems like it will never end.  Not this March.  I'm still not sure we even had a March to be quite honest...and the weather here's not much different than it is back home!  I'm pretty sure that next year when I arrive back in Knoxville I'll feel just like I was sucked into some strange Korean vortex and spit out a few minutes later right back where I started.  Time is absolutely flying.  I'm enjoying myself immensely!

I had a delectably ordinary week and I loved it.  Last Saturday I went back to Insadong with Kim and bought a handmade ceramic necklace of a little house so that I could wear my home around my neck. Oh, the symbolism!  On Sunday, I found the dollar store and bought myself an oven mitt (although I have no oven...but my pot gets hot) and a rainbow wall clock for $5.  I taped it to the wall but it crashed to the floor that night BOOM! waking me up from a dead sleep.  Somehow it didn't scare me a bit.  I used more tape when I rehung it.

Monday at school I began my new music lesson for the week--make your own shakers!  They gave me little paper plates the kids could decorate with confetti and crayons, and then I would put the rice inside and glue-gun them together.  I'd put on a whole dramatic show before starting the lesson.  First, I'd hold up my example I had made myself, doing a little dance while shaking my rice-filled creation.  They'd get really excited about it.  Then I'd hold up the glue gun and get really serious..."Do you see this glue gun?  It gets REAL HOT."  I'd touch the tip (it wasn't plugged in yet) and pretend to burn myself and cry...especially for the 1st year English kids who didn't understand me very well.  "NO one touches this but Teacher, understand?" I'd say, shaking my head and pointing to myself with the gravest of expressions on my face.  They would nod their heads, eyes wide.  It was the best music lesson ever.

Monday night I bought some aloe juice from the store downstairs.  On Tuesday I used it in my breakfast smoothie.  I couldn't read the ingredients but it looked harmless...unfortunately, I was wrong.  It had something in it that aggravated my food sensitivities and immediately went to work attacking my various bodily systems.  I spent the morning in a total fog, had a racing heartbeat by lunchtime, and then my joints started killing me...but I popped the last of my dye-free Advil and made it through the day just fine.  I even took over for Krista Teacher's class because she was sick.  Thank goodness she has one of the best-behaved classes, so it was fabulous!  No more buying juice that doesn't have "100%" on the label!

I also noticed that day that my fingertips were really sore and I couldn't figure out why.  Then on Wednesday, when I went back to the little musical shakers lesson, I realized that I was burning them when I was pressing the kids' plates together where the hot glue was.  Oh!!!  Mystery solved.

Wednesday night after work I went with Rebecca to see Ne-Yo in concert.  We had to change trains 3 times to get there and by the time we arrived we were starving.  We stopped at a cafe and I bought a little bun with cabbage in the center and another one with red bean paste in the center.  They tasted amazing.  At the concert, they were selling flashing rainbow glow sticks outside.  The result was that I was almost as mesmerized by the audience as I was by the actual show!  He had a Korean rapper open for him...it was quite entertaining!  We got home around 11 and I cooked dinner for myself and went straight to bed.

Ne-Yo Concert

Thursday I was absolutely exhausted.  However, I wrote my lesson plans correctly for the first time, to my, and more importantly, to my supervisor's delight!  I finally feel like I'm getting the hang of things.  But by the time I got home at 7:45pm, I felt really strung-out.  My eyes were open wide and riddled with jagged red lines.  I got to my street and looked both ways before crossing.  A couple of cars flew past.  Suddenly, I visualized one hitting me and could see my own bloody scene play out in front of me, clear as day.  I decided right then and there that I was completely insane and that no one else but me had these kinds of thoughts running through their heads...then it dawned on me I had just been working around 10 hours on very little sleep and I just needed to go to bed, so I did!

On Friday I felt much better...refreshed and optimistic.  I glued the shakers together without burning my fingers, and I gave my boys little presents at the end of the day for being good.  I went home in the best of moods.  It had been an extraordinarily ordinary week.

Yesterday I went shopping with Kim in Myeong-dong where I actually found clothes that fit--I needed some short-sleeved cardigans.  The weather is warming up and it is scandalous to show your shoulders.  The girls here wear the shortest of shorts and micro-miniest of mini skirts...but they don't show their shoulders.  Looking in my closet of sleeveless shells I realized I was going to be up spit-creek come summertime.  Luckily, H&M solved my problem!

Since I had gotten poisoned this week, I was doing all I could to shove as much spinach down my throat as possible.  I feel like green leaves of any sort help my outlook on life in general anyways.  Saturday I made myself a beautifully green smoothie with spinach, apple juice, strawberries, and bananas.  It looked just like the slime from "You Can't Do That on Television," which made me so happy I knew I had to take pictures.  As I finished taking my picture with the smoothie, I almost dropped the camera but caught it in time...spilling what looked just like green paint all over my floor.  I had to laugh!

Step 1--take a TON of spinach and put it in a smoothie

Step 2--take a picture of myself with my green smoothie

Step 3--spill green slime all over the floor!

Today I went back down to Insadong to buy some presents for a friend.  While I was there, I saw the most amazing protest sign I'd ever seen in my entire life.  I'll let it speak for itself--and yes, I signed their petition!  Now, all that's left is me wondering--where did March go?