Swine Flu aka Foreigner Flu

On Sunday evening (Aug 23) our school was shut down by the Korean Ministry of Health due to 1 confirmed case (and 7 pending) of H1N1, aka Swine Flu. Our school will be closed for 1 week and the situation will be reassessed as to whether or not the closure will be extended. I am happy and healthy, and now kind of lazy. I guess I am on vacation...again =)

A Few Pics and Words

The "Soda" Club

Every couple of weeks we get together for "sodas" and we cook for each other. This night we had dinner at Mikki's house. She cooked a great mixture of Korean and Western food. She knows I'm picky. In the pic: Me, Mikki, Melissa, Greg, Tiffeney.

Celebrating Melissa's birthday. She's from Honduras and was so kind to bring back some Honduran cigars =)
My beers are getting ready for a long plane ride.
This weekend some friends and I went to a show called "Breakout." It was a breakdancing musical comedy. Very cool! The first week of school went pretty smooth. Not too much going on right now. There is a trip to Yanji, China coming up at the end of September over the Korean Chuseok holiday. Yanji borders N. Korea. I'm trying to get signed up for a 4 day trip, but I don't know if I'll get a spot.

I started listening to a guy named John Legend. He's been around for a while, and I wish I heard his music a long time ago. Check out the album "Evolver."

I'm a Fake!

The story behind the title of this post isn't that great, but thought I'd put it in here. In April of 2008 I had Lasik surgery. I was tired of wearing glasses all the time, so I decided to fork over $1700 and experience some mild discomfort (I hate anything being near my eyes) to fix my vision. It has been worth every dollar!!! But there was a small part of me that missed wearing my glasses when I had to meet with parents, give presentations or wear a shirt and tie. I thought the glasses added some intellect and made me look older. I'm 29 now, but still pass for a few years younger...so I'm told. Anyways, this summer I took my old glasses in and had them put in non-prescription lenses. Last Friday was new student orientation. Over the previous two weeks I did not wear my glasses when meeting with parents...well, in fact, I didn't wear them at all. For new student orientation I had to wear a shirt and tie, so I put on my glasses as well. No one here has seen me with glasses, so it felt a bit odd, especially when people would say, "Oh, I didn't know you wore glasses." I would reply, "Well I don't wear them that often." =) Lots of people liked my look with glasses. I feel like a fake. But so many people in Korea wear glasses even when they don't need them, so maybe I can justify my actions by saying that I'm just trying to fit in with the people I'm surrounded by =)

Boring post huh!

On another note...I've been riding and swimming a lot! The Koreans at my local bike shop invited me to ride with them...we'll see how that goes. There is a new staff member at my school who is my Chinese twin. He rides and swims...how great! It's been nice having someone to swim laps with and push one another.

I'm down to 7 beers from the States. I cooked fajitas twice last week and will be cooking for a couple friends on Thursday. I'm becoming domesticated. But instead of ironing my shirts I decided to pay someone to do that for me (it's only a dollar per shirt).