Ongoing pain saga

Yesterday I tried a different doctor, just because an old friend works for the guy in the morning time. I explained in great Korean that I had injured my chest muscle a few times this year. Well, he starts pinching on my ribs of all places to test out. Then he says "oh fractured rib." It turns out the x-rays were negative and he told me not to move my right side much at all --- kind of really hard when you work with little ones. My x-rays, office visit and pain shot cost a total of about 8 bucks. My pain meds for 3 days were about five bucks as well. I really just want an MRI to make sure I didn't screw anything up, especially since I was goofing off with a kid today and really thought I felt something tear. Anyway, we did have a really hard rain this morning, so I had to help the Korean women escort the kids from the bus to the building under a giant umbrella (that's used for an outdoor table). The kids thought that it was a super cool idea though.  I had to go home and lunch time though and change clothes, since my pants were, and probably still are a little damp. Time for bed, but I'm trying to work on this consistency thing here with the bloggin'. 

Happy Birthday America

This guy was prepared a few weeks ago for the 4th of July. Hope everyone enjoys their holiday.

From a field trip a while back

We celebrated Korean Memorial day by taking a little field trip at the end of May to a local Memorial Hall. Here are a few pictures from the trip.

        Packed in like sardines -- very illegal in America to sit with a kid in your lap in the front seat, especially at that age

                                        My class and I posing in front of a plane

                                                One of my afternoon groups

One of our youngest English learners

                                 

                                           Just a few of the kids at our kindergarten/Pre-K

                                           This little guy always says "John Teacher is fish"

                                        One of my super good kids 

The Bite

Here is a picture of a bite I received at work from one of my students. Sad to say that I was wearing pants when the bite occurred. The student's Korean teacher, mom, and dad were all super apologetic. I was a little upset the first day, but then I just kind laughed about it after that.

Here are a few pictures from the U.N. Cemetery that I visited on America's Memorial Day -- Koreans celebrated Buddha's Birthday on that day. It's the only cemetery of it's kind. Incredible park that many foreigners in this country don't even know about.

A few pictures of the last week or two

                                 On this day we had class on the carpet, well, they sat on lap instead

                                       This kid loves to wear my shoes

                                        About 15 bucks or so worth of meat -- the lean kind, that is

             This little dude is nuts. He likes to bite other kids, and he really loves tearing pages out of his book.

                    This is a new burger place that just opened in my neighborhood. It's pretty good, but the name Muscle Buck -- I'm not so sure that the burgers are that good for you.

Long Time No See

I apologize for the long layoff or absence from this blog here. I haven't been super busy, I've just been a little lazy and catching up on this thing. Life is going well over here in the ROK. People complain about it being hot, when it's only 85 degrees, outside with about a 50% humidity. The humidity does absolutely suck in the morning time though. Monsoon season is coming this weekend, which may not allow for many fun activities in the great outdoors.

I've enjoyed some busy weekends lately that have consisted of some fun times --- not associated with booze though. I've been playing basketball around town, and really enjoying that. Playing with foreigners on Saturdays is something I started doing last weekend. I had a blast with that, especially since I'm in much better cardio shape than most of the guys there. I also volunteered with a cultural group I'm a member of, at a rehab center for patients with mental illnesses. There have been a few "food events", as well as the twice a month English club meetings.

Work is staying fun as well. I was bit by a student a few weeks ago, which was kind of funny. I'm not gonna discuss it much further than that for now, but the parents were super apologetic.

Over the last few weeks I've seen quite a bit at work that makes me thankful for these hard-working women.  
I'll have to post some pictures of the rug-rats on here later.  I did strain my minor pec muscle, but the doc has given me some physical therapy, and some strong meds to help out. Anyway, it's the weekend here, and I'm gonna go to sleep, but I'll keep this thing going much more over the next few weeks. Summer vacation and a short trip home are on the to-do list over the next few months.