( Steph Lloyd )

After sitting out for over a month, I went back to taekwondo tonight. It went better than I expected it to! I got a bit winded during the beginning warm-ups but I attribute that not working out for a month. We did our poomsaes and then worked on kicks. They’ve worked on this new spin kick a few times recently, but tonight was my first time doing it. Well, what I did wouldn’t really be considering doing it, but I tried! Hehe. If I can get the hang of it, I’ll use it to impress you all when I get back.

The middle schoolers have final exams coming up in the beginning of July so they are starting to study like crazy again. All of our middle school classes are cancelled until the end of the month. That means a couple of hours less teaching per week. They are adding a class or two to each of our schedules that is a kind of overflow class… because there aren’t enough Korean teachers to teach them all. We basically study their school textbooks during that time. Normally I just let them study what they need to be studying and then help if they need it. They are fairly disciplined when it comes to the couple of weeks before a test.

So, the next couple of weeks will be a little bit easier at work. Then, after the kids are done preparing, our schedules will go back to normal. We’ll work for three days and then our friend Josh will get here. We’ll spend a week with him (minus one day at school). After Josh leaves, we’ll work the normal schedule for another week and then we get switched to our ‘summer vacation’ schedules. We don’t have them yet, but we should be teaching a little bit earlier in the day and getting off earlier. That’ll last for one month. After that month, we’ll have a week back on a normal schedule and then we come home! I have a feeling the next two and a half months are going to fly by.

As far as the job search back home goes, I’ve turned in all my stuff to one potential job. My friend Nicole referred me, so it looks promising. I’m a little bit concerned about everything lining up time-wise, I think they want someone earlier than we’re planning on coming home. If it comes down to it, I will try to fudge with my contract here to make it back. If it doesn’t work out, I’m sure there’ll be something else, I’m not stressing about it. Gotta say, sleeping for a week straight would be amazing!