Hot Town, Summer in the City

Well, the Seoul summer is at its peak with temperatures in the mid to high 90's and mid 80's at night. The temperatures are very similar to those back home but there's more rain here. One thing I dislike about living in Seoul right now is that its difficult to get to the beach. I love the fact that in NJ you can be at a beach in 2 hours if necessary. The coast isn't really any farther here but without a car, I have to take a train and get a hotel and it can end up being a hassle. There's a great beach city (the 2nd biggest city in Seoul) about 3 hours south east of where I live and I hope to get there before the end of the summer if money and time allow.

Even though I just got back from Thailand I am already getting ready for another trip. Next month (9/13 - 9/16) is Chusok, the Korean harvest festival. You can kind of compare it to the American holiday of Thanksgiving. We get 4 days off from work so I'm taking that opportunity to do a trip to Beijing, China! I am very very excited about the opportunity to see the Great Wall and Tiananmen Square, etc. Also, it will be exciting because it will be just a few weeks after the Olympics.

Speaking of the Olympics, I have to say I am incredibly happy for how well Korea is doing this year. Obviously I am rooting first and foremost for the US but it's really fun cheering for Korea as well. Right now they have the 3rd highest gold medal count, second only to China and the US, two of the top 3 most populated countries in the world. That is pretty impressive in my opinion. My kids are so excited and all they want to talk about is the Olympics.

As many of you know, I spent a lot of my free time this Spring and Summer cheering for my Korean baseball team, the Woori Heroes. I have autographed balls from 2 of the players and I've danced on the dugout during the 7th inning stretch twice. Anyway, right now the Korean baseball league is not playing because the Olympic baseball team is made up of players from the league. Two players from my team are on the Olympic team. One of these players is Lee, Tae-Gun, the DH for the Olympic team and one of the players whose autographed ball I have! Last night, I watched the US vs Korea baseball game. I was torn between cheering for the US and cheering for Korea since I knew so many of the players on the Korean team. I decided that since The US wins so many medals and probably will end up medaling in baseball anyway, that I would cheer for Korea and the Woori Heroes players in this game. I was glad I did because it was a really really good game. Korea was down by 2 runs going into the bottom of the ninth. Then Lee, Tae-Gun hit in the tying run, stole 2 bases, and scored the winning run on a sacrafice fly. I was so excited!

I am, of course, extremely proud of how well the US is doing in the Olympics as well. Gymnastics was a bit disappointing but swimming has been very exciting with Michael Phelps. It's nice being in the same time zone (1 hour ahead) of the Olympics! I was able to watch the Opening Ceremony live during prime time. It was a bit difficult because the commentary is in Korean but it was good practice for me to read the names of each country in Korean as they appeared on the bottom of the screen.

I've been working on my Korean a lot lately. Classes haven't really been practical with the busy-ness of summer but I can read Korean perfectly and I can do money and count and I know a lot of classroom phrases. I am hoping to start another regular class sometime this winter.

Which brings me to the fact that I am officially staying in Korea after my year is up! I am very very excited about this decision. The main reasons are that I want to continue to travel more and I love my job so much. I will be coming home for a visit from 10/31 to 11/29. Sadly I won't be home for Christmas this year but I plan to use the week off to go travel somewhere exciting. (take the survey)

Well, I have a class to teach in 20 minutes so I'm going to go get ready. I'll write more soon!