This week has had its ups and downs, so we're pretty glad the weekend is near! We haven't done much this week because of our cash flow situation and because it's been very cold (snow again). Even the head teacher asked us how things were going, "You know, because its very cold outside." The director agrees, he says that all the students are sleepy because it is dark and cold outside. So, I guess we can blame the bad weather on our blah week.

So, for the ups:

1) We got our first paycheck! Woohoo! It felt great to use the ATM this morning and take out so much won! We treated ourselves to a meal out and some ice cream fondue at Baskin Robins. This weekend we plan to see a couple of movies and go shopping for some much needed shelving units and a bigger litter box for Gizmo. We also plan to go to Myeongdong (in Chuncheon) to explore the city a bit more. Hopefully next weekend will be warmer and we will go sightseeing or maybe take a trip to Seoul.

2) Classes seem to be going well. And business at our hagwon seems to be booming. It sounds like there are requests for more kindergarten classes (one or possibly two), so the director asked us if we would be willing to teach another class. Since we are already teaching at capacity (120 hours a month), we would be getting compensated for this extra 8 hours if these classes start. It would only mean coming in to work half an hour earlier, so it seems pretty worth it if this happens.

Sadly there are some downs:

1) The weather! I'm sure we shouldn't be complaining since all of our Iowa readers have it so much worse (maybe), but it really sucks here. The high tomorrow is in the 40s, so were looking forward to that, but it really needs to stop snowing and I'm getting tired of wearing hats, gloves, big puffy coat, etc.

2) Our snot-nosed kids got us sick. Not badly, don't worry, we don't have swine flu 2.0. It's a minor head cold. I told the head teacher yesterday that I had a small cold and she said, "Oh really, do you need to see the doctor?" I couldn't believe she would suggest going to the doctor for something so commonplace in winter. Apparently everyone here sees the doctor over the slightest sniffle. We're hoping to feel ourselves again by Saturday.

3) We're having some problems "being fun" in our classes. Hopefully this isn't a big issue for them, since the director acted like it wasn't a big deal, but they keep trying to tell us that we need to be more fun in our classes (me especially). So, there have been a few "complaints" from the parents, and I'm assuming that they are all directed at me (Lisa). I had a private talk last week with the head teacher and today Michael and I talked about it with the director. One complaint is that we play too many games in the classroom. That's right, parents are upset that their kids are having fun in school. Other parents complain about their kids being bored in class, or not having fun. It's a lose-lose situation for us, because we're not supposed to play games and we're supposed to make class fun. I won't get too into detail on this, maybe I will blog about this later, but let's just say that I think this makes teaching kinda difficult. We'll see how it goes, Michael and I are discussing ways that we (mostly I) can improve this.

Well, that's about it. This was a long post and picture less too, so kudos to those of you who read it all. I will definitely take some pictures this weekend so you will have something to look at later.