Staying Positive

This past weekend was a crap shoot of emotions. Stress levels are high, with both of us. The past few weeks of school have been a struggle, with cultural differences, wild kids, summer camp workbook deadlines, and the over-all anticipation of vacation looming in the distance. We're now at the point where we're just trying to get through, with no real effort to teach any new materials. The games have come out, for sure.

While the rainy season has begun, Saturday we woke up to a surprise of the most gorgeous sunshiny day of the summer. Taking advantage, we jumped in the car and drove to the beach, only to have a ton of things go wrong. People were driving horrendously, our GPS died mid-drive, we ended up stuck on a slow, winding road behind the slowest car ever, and the drive home was long, with numerous random detours for no apparent reason. These things aren't normally enough to make us upset, but with the stress already high, let's just say it was a rough day. The only reprieve was the actual beach itself: not crowded at all and the water was amazingly warm.

Yesterday we slept in and had plans to go shopping at a brand new complex at the newly renovated bus station. That specific EMART is known for having a larger foreign foods section, as well as gluten free food and whole grains.Unfortunately, we drove all the way there, excited about corn tortillas and baby shopping, only to be turned around at a gate AFTER we had parked the car. Korea has a new law in place that the second and forth Sundays of every month, large department store grocery chains have to close to give opportunities to the small traditional markets. Dumbest rule EVER, considering it's been in place for a while, and of course, as you can imagine, people just shift their shopping day to Saturday or Monday. The courts in Seoul just ruled in favor of the big stores, but it hasn't trickled down yet. We were stupid enough to not think about it (considering July 1st was a Sunday), so we surprised and pretty upset, again, because we were already having a crappy weekend.

Things turned around, though. We made a bunch of cranes yesterday afternoon, and only have 100 to go! We also made shopping lists and are getting organized for the big trip. We lugged out our luggage from the back room and are wiping them down and starting to put things in a pile for future packing.

Two more weeks of regular school, with one week of summer camp, and then we are home. It's the home stretch now, and we can do it. Tensions are high, but it's all good...trying keeping a positive attitude!

We have a few small projects left to do and then our Korea project list will be finished. Feels good to be so productive ^__^