May is going to absolutely fly past. This upcoming weekend is a much-needed holiday, if the general attitude of my students is concerned. I've been almost bitten, hit a few times--all out of love, because for some reason a few kids under the age of 6 think that acting like dicks gets positive attention. Reality: In terms of biting, all it gets you is a chair in the corner and a lot of tears. Honestly, I don't remember everything from when I took Child Psychology in college, mostly because I only paid attention to the teenager chapters while thinking, "There's no way in hell I'll ever teach kids under the age of----" Anyway, I seem to recall something about a child's brain being made of blueberry muffins until about age nine, so maybe that has something to do with it.
So as I said, this is going to be a much needed vacation for the entire peninsula. I've had my share of dealing with mass Asian holidays and am actually staying put. An entire nation on the move for beaches and mountains with their kids in tow means I hide in my own city, so I'm doing a stay-cation in Seoul. Mid-May I'm heading down to Jeju Island with a few friends, and between that I have a baseball game to go to with a co-teacher, and then another wine gathering. May is really, really going to disappear fast.
After that, hey guess what--I'm going to Boracay Island in the Philippines for our summer vacaion at the end of July! Which means lots of fun in the sun, and lots of not doing anything on the weekdays leading up to it so I can pay stupid amounts of money to become PADI Open Water certified to scuba dive. So I aplogize for any forthcoming posts about, uh, knitting or reading in the park.
I have five months left, so I'm starting to make a list of things I've wanted to do. The end of living abroad has a real way of sneaking up to bite you in the ass. Example: My last week living in Tokyo, I remembered I'd never been to the island of Odaiba or the original Pokemon Center, which lead to some hard decisions, my friend, let me tell you. (Pokemon Center won out because I am a gigantic nerd.) In China, I went on a whirlwind tour of Shanghai, Beijing, the Great Wall, and Sujou in a week's time and slept like the dead on my plane home to the USA.
So, I've learned my lesson. Probably.
On my to-do list:
- Jeju Island (May)
- DMZ (June)
- Train ride up to Chuncheon for delicious dak galbi (This weekend!)
Not planned, but I know I have to get off my ass and do it:
- Seroksan, a gorgeous mountain maybe 4 hours away, and the neighboring park adorned with penises (Yes, you read that right.)
- Busan, the second largest city in Korea with a beach down south
...other than that, I truly have no other musts. Really I'd just like to get around Seoul a bit more and explore areas I haven't been to yet. It's a gigantic city--the second largest in the world after Tokyo, so cut me some slack!
