Catching up

At the "Rape Seed Flower Festival" (Canola Flower)

It's already April! We're 7 weeks into the new school year and I haven't hardly blogged at all. I apologize sincerely. The cherry blossoms have come and gone, and spring is in full swing. The weather went from snowy to hot literally overnight. Fortunately, the humidity is still a few weeks off. I've been quite busy enjoying the beautiful weather, going to yoga, and spending time with friends. My Korean studying has taken a back burner as of late, but I will resume meetings with my friend and teacher Shin Nae this week.

Cherry Blossom Road

Chinese Performers in front of my school

I'm at a funny dichotomy with this yoga class I've been taking. The yoga master is an incredible teacher and the people who take the class are really inspiring. Most of them go every day, some people twice a day every day. Sometimes I think "I've been doing yoga for 5 years! I'm so great at yoga!", which, of course, is not the point of yoga at all, nor am I any more adept than anyone who's practiced regularly for 5 years. We do a lot of asanas (yoga postures) in class that I've never seen and never tried before and the class is all in Korean except the occasional word or two of English that he offers to help me. I find myself getting confused and frustrated with things that everyone else can do quite easily and poses that are obviously more natural for Korean bodies than my lanky Western body. Two weeks ago I pushed myself too hard and went to 7 yoga classes on top of the 2 that I teach every week. I ended up exhausting myself and getting sick, plus making myself feel guilty for not getting up at 4:30am to go to the morning class and not going to yoga after school every day. There is a balance that I'm trying to find between doing everything I want to do and not pushing myself too hard. That's always been a struggle for me - most people in my life can attest to that - and it continues to plague me here in Jeju. I am learning so much both about yoga and about myself in this class (like just how many back bends are possible at 5:30am) and I am determined to go as much as my body and my sanity can handle.

This weather does make one want to go outside, though! I've had some fun adventures with Jason the past few weekends. We went for a hike to a dry river gorge(above) last weekend and this past weekend we camped on a beach with some friends. The weather was the best it's been in months making it a truly beautiful 3 days.

Sunny Jeju beaches!

Jason & I

Lounging on the beach

The view from the tent

The Public Education Office picked my co-teacher Kee Jeong and I to present at a conference for the new foreign teachers in Jeju next week. We've been busy preparing materials and submissions for our presentation on just how this "co-teaching" thing works. We'll be doing a mock lesson and discussion on co-teaching to about 40 Korean and foreign elementary school English teachers. It should be fun!