Dirrrrrrrty!
Sweat drippin' over my body
(pardon the Christina Aguilera quote)

After much frustration and confusion over attempting to buy plane tickets, we finally have our tickets to Japan reserved. Woo-hoo! They're $455...you'd think tickets from Korea to Japan would be cheaper since they're so close, but apparently not. So I will be going to Japan July 29 - August 5. Well have 6 full days in Japan. I think our schedule will be pretty tight. We haven't planned anything yet, but I believe we want to go to: Osaka (which seems kind of stupid, actually, but that's where we're flying in and out of), Kyoto (which was one of the few major Japanese cities not bombed during WWII because academics were able to persuade the military to avoid it because of its cultural assets), Nara (ancient capital), Himeji (has a cool old castle there), and Hiroshima. It'll be a day in each place with 2 days in Kyoto, probably.

Tomorrow I'm going to Daecheon/Boryeong to the Mud Festival with Elissa, her mom, and Meghan. It should be fun. I'm coming home Monday night (we don't have school on Monday because it's some sort of holiday).

It's incredibly humid here right now. The temperature's not insanely high, but it feels like it is because of the humidity. Sometimes I get sweat dripping off me when I'm doing nothing but sitting in my apartment. It's gross. It's been raining all day. It's weird because it starts and stops with no warning. And when it gets going, it really pours. I guess August is even hotter, but I've also been told that it's not as humid, so that will be nice.

I went to a demo class on Friday. The meeting afterwards was attended by the Gyeonggi guy in charge of all elementary school native English speakers. Whose wife happens to teach at my school. I didn't know that until a few weeks ago when she told me that. At one point in front of the whole group he looked at me and asked, "Why are you not staying another year?" Ahhh...I gave some bullcrap answer. I don't think anyone would have appreciated me saying, "Because I hate Korea." He said I'd "be welcomed back at any time." He then asked all the native English speaker teachers there to ask questions or give comments on our contracts. There were like 4 other whiteys there. No one said anything, so I finally spoke up and said how I didn't like how the elementary contracts were different than the middle and high school contracts. Which prompted one of the whiteys to ask how they were different. The Gyeonggi guy obviously wanted to avoid talking about the differences and just said, "Oh, they are only little different." Then I answered the guy and explained how the middle/high school teachers don't have to be at school if the Korean teachers don't, that they teach a maximum of 2 weeks of English camp during their vacations, and they get paid more. But the Gyeonggi guy said that they were making the contracts the same for all teachers next year. And I learned that people think I'm leaving because I don't like my co-teacher, Ms. Lee. I have no idea why people think this, but it pisses me off.

Oh, I also think I figured out what I'll have to do that one week in August when I don't have camp but it's after my vacation. According to my co-teacher, the vice-principal told her that I'll have to come in every day in the morning and prepare for my English camp that next week. But then I guess I can go home after lunch. Well, at lunch time...I don't want to eat at school...esp since they don't serve school lunch so I'd have to pack something or order food with other teachers (if any will be there)...which would be food I don't want, most likely. So anyway, I'm very relieved I don't have to teach a camp. However, this is Korea. That could change.

One and a half months to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!