May 2012 in review

A new month has begun, so it's time to look back at the previous one. May was a good time. There'll be more to come...the following comprises some of the best times:

• Getting a cab ride from central Seoul to Wasu at 3am with Kirsten. We rode around 110km and paid 100,000won including tip. This came at the end of a long night that began with Claire’s choir concert downtown and ended with a long after party in a neighborhood near the Noksapyeong Station.

• Pub Golf with most of the Cheorwon Crew. Claire put this together: Nine holes spread across all three of our towns, replete with 3 legged races, flip cup, beer pong, bowling, beer chugging. The opening hole had us chugging a beer through a mouth full of marshmallows and then eating the marshmallows. I did this in two long swigs. Most everyone else did it in one. Those marshmallows burned on the way down the throat.

• Meeting some of teachers and students of my two schools’ sister school in Heffei, China.

• Having the distinct pleasure of teaching a 90 minute joint class of Korean and Chinese students from middle school and high school. The principal, vice principal, and many of the teachers watched. The class had students from middle school grade 3 to high school grade 3. I and my co-teacher Ms. Jeong taught the students how to write a comparison paragraph about the two schools on a piece of poster paper and the kids did wonderfully. The paragraphs they wrote exceeded our expectations and the kids had a great time working with each other. All of them listened attentively and showed enthusiasm. This day will forever stand as one of my best (and favorite) classes. Credit goes to the principal for the comparison idea and Ms. Jeong for preparing the posters and 90% of the lesson. She outdid herself there.
• Drinking free makgeolli on the street at the Cheonggyecheon Festival.
• Riding on a motor  scooter for the first time—on a Friday night in the gridlocked Dongdaemun area of Seoul. Weaving between cars made for one fun near-death experience.