oh.....let me see....what have i been up to lately? i've been keepin' myself busy....i bought a new ukulele, whom i have given the name, rosie. i have been practicing my chords and strumming and plan to get my first full song down this week.
this past week i've been on a coupla bike adventures w/ smilja....cruised to a temple in the daytime and through back alleys & over the han river at night. while wandering in the wee hours, we stumbled upon the local hip-hop/skater scene & drank free beer and danced all night at some guys birthday party. good times. i only have pics of the temple though...
a couple of weeks ago i hosted my first couch surfer here in south korea. couch surfing is awesome, so if you don't know about it, check it out (www.couchsurfing.com). my guest, jaume, was this great guy from spain who has traveled all over the world and is now living and studying in kyoto, japan. he was just in seoul for a couple of days to renew his visa, so we had some fun exploring new parts of the city together. anyway, here's jaume...awesome guy.
and just the other day i met up w/ another couch surfer who's living and teaching in seoul...funny enough, it turns out that this guy and i have led very similar lives up to this point; working on environment and political campaigns for the same organizations, working in haiti and traveling through costa rica. some strange coincidences. anyway, we checked out these cool tombs, built between 1494 and 1544 for 2 kings and a queen, which happen to be right in my part of town. they are situated right in this awesome park full of trees and flowers...i can't believe i didn't know this was there...
...and i'm still enjoying my job. my kids are feeling more and more like my own as the weeks go by. so i've been blessed w/ the duty of planning and teaching art at my school & this week i had a lot of fun. i decided to make dinosaur eggs w/ all the kids. we mixed up our own clay out of dirt, sand, flour, salt and water & sculpted our eggs around little plastic dinosaurs. they loved it. what kid doesn't like those 2 things, dinoaurs & playing w/ mud? i also lucked out w/ my after-school class; i get to teach CHESS once a week for an hour! i'm still pretty new to the game, but i'm no doubt improving my game each week by teaching and playing w/ the kids (i have 4 students in chess). this week it was super nice outside, so we played outside on the terrace. what a rough life, eh? here's a recent shot of me & my crazy kids.
...and today has been everything that a sunday should be. it was a gorgeous and slow morning...a bright, warm and sunny day, i walked around the neighborhood in search of ingredients for something to make for the vegetarian potluck picnic this afternoon. i decided to go w/ 2 dishes; one that i make all the time (veggie pancakes), and one as an experiment (vegan chocolate mousse w/ sliced fruit). the picnic was in a peaceful park right beside a couple of buddha statues from the 10th & 11th century. there was a good spread of yummy food & my two dishes went over well. thanks to jonna, there was also hula-hooping!
after the picnic, jonna, ben (her squeeze, as she calls him) and i headed out to the garden to plant some tomatoes. when we got there, the lady who manages the place was happy to see us as usual. we showed her that we had bought some tomato seedlings to plant and then she showed us that she had some for sale, which were already blooming. she gave us a few of them for free, plus about 6 other plants (3 of which i think are eggplant, and the others i have no idea). sweet lady. so once again, the sun went down soon after we got there and we were gardening at night. i added some fresh scraps to the compost bin & noticed that it's pretty ripe & juicy in there. i'm gonna go on a mission to find some worms next.
sooo.....that was one long, jumbled & rambly update. i've gotta go back to work tomorrow, but then i get tuesday off for children's day. i'm thinking CINCO DE MAYO. :) aloha all. missing you.
this past week i've been on a coupla bike adventures w/ smilja....cruised to a temple in the daytime and through back alleys & over the han river at night. while wandering in the wee hours, we stumbled upon the local hip-hop/skater scene & drank free beer and danced all night at some guys birthday party. good times. i only have pics of the temple though...
a couple of weeks ago i hosted my first couch surfer here in south korea. couch surfing is awesome, so if you don't know about it, check it out (www.couchsurfing.com). my guest, jaume, was this great guy from spain who has traveled all over the world and is now living and studying in kyoto, japan. he was just in seoul for a couple of days to renew his visa, so we had some fun exploring new parts of the city together. anyway, here's jaume...awesome guy.
and just the other day i met up w/ another couch surfer who's living and teaching in seoul...funny enough, it turns out that this guy and i have led very similar lives up to this point; working on environment and political campaigns for the same organizations, working in haiti and traveling through costa rica. some strange coincidences. anyway, we checked out these cool tombs, built between 1494 and 1544 for 2 kings and a queen, which happen to be right in my part of town. they are situated right in this awesome park full of trees and flowers...i can't believe i didn't know this was there...
...and i'm still enjoying my job. my kids are feeling more and more like my own as the weeks go by. so i've been blessed w/ the duty of planning and teaching art at my school & this week i had a lot of fun. i decided to make dinosaur eggs w/ all the kids. we mixed up our own clay out of dirt, sand, flour, salt and water & sculpted our eggs around little plastic dinosaurs. they loved it. what kid doesn't like those 2 things, dinoaurs & playing w/ mud? i also lucked out w/ my after-school class; i get to teach CHESS once a week for an hour! i'm still pretty new to the game, but i'm no doubt improving my game each week by teaching and playing w/ the kids (i have 4 students in chess). this week it was super nice outside, so we played outside on the terrace. what a rough life, eh? here's a recent shot of me & my crazy kids.
...and today has been everything that a sunday should be. it was a gorgeous and slow morning...a bright, warm and sunny day, i walked around the neighborhood in search of ingredients for something to make for the vegetarian potluck picnic this afternoon. i decided to go w/ 2 dishes; one that i make all the time (veggie pancakes), and one as an experiment (vegan chocolate mousse w/ sliced fruit). the picnic was in a peaceful park right beside a couple of buddha statues from the 10th & 11th century. there was a good spread of yummy food & my two dishes went over well. thanks to jonna, there was also hula-hooping!
after the picnic, jonna, ben (her squeeze, as she calls him) and i headed out to the garden to plant some tomatoes. when we got there, the lady who manages the place was happy to see us as usual. we showed her that we had bought some tomato seedlings to plant and then she showed us that she had some for sale, which were already blooming. she gave us a few of them for free, plus about 6 other plants (3 of which i think are eggplant, and the others i have no idea). sweet lady. so once again, the sun went down soon after we got there and we were gardening at night. i added some fresh scraps to the compost bin & noticed that it's pretty ripe & juicy in there. i'm gonna go on a mission to find some worms next.
sooo.....that was one long, jumbled & rambly update. i've gotta go back to work tomorrow, but then i get tuesday off for children's day. i'm thinking CINCO DE MAYO. :) aloha all. missing you.
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hey, so hows all that life going? i love you amy gaines!
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