We have a long weekend, due to the Lunar New Year holiday.

 

I also bought my I-River S10 .mp3 player -- the one I wrote about yesterday.

 

Today, I met my former Bundang neighbors and had dinner together with them at VIPS (a chain buffet restaurant popular around the Seoul area).  They used to live on my floor (along with another daughter, who was unable to come) in Bundang.  They no longer live in that building, and neither do I.  We have gotten together around Christmas time for three years now.  Mom is a widow, and has two daughers Gee-Woo (the seven-year old you see here) and Dong-Hyun (a 21 year-old daughter who is very gorgeous, is a local radio personality, and speaks English with almost no accent).  Too bad Dong-Hyun couldn't join us, but I am happy she has some time on her own.  She works two jobs to help support her mom and little sister (no time for school). 

Well, this got deleted the first time, so here I go, writing it all again...

I have been pretty lonely this week.  I won't go into that.  I've been exercising a lot to try to keep from getting too depressed about it.  Exercise helps to release chemicals in your brain, which help lift your spirits.  I have found it to be very helpful in the past.  The downside is that my arms are really sore, and my whole body is very tired.  I don't bounce back from hard workouts like I did ten years ago!

I gave my winter class students their midterm test today.  They bombed it.  Their scores were quite awful.  Well, they did pretty good on their speaking test yesterday, though, so it all balanced out.  I have become quite adept at using a spreadsheet to output their scores on my website for them to see.

I have been thinking about buying an mp3 player.  I have settled on the I-river S10.  It's very tiny.  Here is a review link with a video showing how it works:

http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/portable-media/iriver-s10-reviewed-again-verdict-zune-schmune-217257.php

I want to use it while I exercise.

I decided to start exercising again.  I worked out for 50 minutes tonight.  It will help me from letting the winter, and other things get me down too much.  My goal is to lose 5kgs.

Also, one of my coworkers told me that I have been invited to study Korean at my university during this winter break.  I'm going to give it a try.  It is an intensive program from 9am to 1pm every day.  Then I will teach English class from 1 to 4.  I'll have to break for lunch between sometime.  Two months of intensive practice should help my Korean quite a bit, I hope!  They use the Seoul National University books that already have.

I hope I can learn some more Korean!  This is really a good opportunity for me.  I can never seem to take classes, because my teaching schedule interferes.

Today, I met my friend Sally for lunch, then coffee in Shinchon.  She is a public school teacher I've known for almost four years now.  She is yet another Korean friend with the goal of moving to the USA soon.  Her plan is to teach Korean at American schools through some special program.  Sally teaches English at a public all-girls high school in Seoul.  We usually meet up for coffee every month or three to talk about our lives or whatever.  We met up for Christmas because both of us were bored and had no other plans, I guess.  Sometimes we go six months without talking, and she fools me by pretending to be another foreigner on the phone.  Her English is that good.  Here is another photo, although my camera flash overexposed.  I'm trying to put my new memory card I got for Christmas to good use:  Last night, I drank a Mud Slide at TGIF (by myself) then fell asleep at home.  I got a call from my friend, Joyce, asking me to join her and her American friend, Christine in Hongdae for the evening.  They had heard I wasn't doing anything.  So I went there at 11pm or so.  By three AM, I got bored of watching them flirt with guys, and just decided to head home (I've never been a club person, but it was good to get out and do something).  My taxi driver fell asleep at a stop light on the way home!!!

I am going to be alone for the holidays.  Kind of sad.  I will be happy when Tuesday comes.