Monday, April 7th

The weather has finally changed and it actually feels like Spring. Apparently Spring usually comes early and the weather turns mild in March but this year it was pretty cold right up until Friday. All weekend it was high 60's. Friday night I got together with some local friends for a wine and cheese girls night in. Saturday was lots of fun, I went with a group of friends to the Seoul horse races. It was a gorgeous day and we sat outside, soaking up the sun as we watched a few races. It was some kind of family day so there were lots of kids and activities and admission was free. Saturday evening I went mini golfing with my friend on the roof of this huge building. It was really fun. Sunday was another beautiful day and I headed to church in the afternoon. My church is doing an orphanage reach-out program that I really want to join. They train volunteers for a few weeks on how to minister to children in orphanages here and then you go to one orphanage every Saturday for 2 months and work with the kids there. You have to have the training first and they didn't know when they were starting again but hopefully it will be soon because I'd really like to do that!

Last week I was sick (just a cold) AGAIN. I have been sick at least once every month since I got here. Everything from tummy trouble to common colds to the time I ended up in the hospital with a fever of 104. I guess my body has just had a hard time adjusting to Asia. And while some things in Korea (like the subway) are really clean, some things (like the air) are really dirty.

The thing about having a cold in Korea is that there are vitamins (especially C) galore. At any convenience store, next to the Coke, and various sodas and drinks, are rows of different vitamin drinks. They usually come in small glass bottles and you can buy a case of 12 for around 5USD. Vitamin C is especially popular, there are many vitamin C drinks (my favorite is one called Lemon-C which kind of tastes like carbonated lemonade) but it also comes in different forms like candy and a powder you pour directly onto your tongue. It's also extremely common to give Vitamin C-items as gifts here. So often a teacher at my school will bring in a big box of Vitamin-C drinks and give one to all the teachers. Or my students often give me a Vitamin drink or, more commonly, Vitamin-C candy. Perhaps the modern version of giving your teacher an apple...

Speaking of my students, here are some recent pictures from my classes: