Random pictures from my phone

The view on my way to work in the morning.

Bins of strawberries at one of the street markets.

A corner of Seoul near my school.

Cherry Blossoms

It is cherry blossom season here in Korea, and they are absolutely beautiful! I had the chance to go to the Southern part of the country for a festival yesterday, and I was able to snap a few photos of some cherry blossoms.

I took over 600 pictures at the festival, and I'm hoping to go out this week and get more cherry blossom pictures. They are so amazingly beautiful! Have a happy day, and I'll write more of an update soon!

Saturday Afternoon

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I went several provinces to the east today to go hiking today. I was pretty tired so when I got here I didn't feel much like hiking but the scenery was beautiful and the people were scarce. I could hear birds singing. I could hear water flowing. There weren't any traffic sounds or store employees clamoring for attention. It was such a lovely way to spend a day! I even got some pictures on my camera so look for those in the next few days. I hope your Saturday is as relaxing as mine has been!

The Rooftop Garden

Some of my students playing an exciting game of "count and noncount noun go fish" on the rooftop garden, because the weather was too nice to have class inside today.

Picture of the Day

I recently got some really cheap wall decals to hang in my classroom. I love finding things on sale! After I packed up all of my Christmas decorations a few months ago, my room just felt really bare. So I was happy to find these. There are two of them on the wall that my students look at, and one that is on the back wall that I see when I'm sitting at my desk. That one is by far my favorite! 

Spring is on its way!

Today was the first day that really felt like spring! It was also one of those lovely days that starts out around 30 degrees and goes up to 60 degrees. I'm discovering that it is a lot harder to do the whole seasonal layering thing when I have to wear dress clothes than it was when I could throw on a hoodie, but hopefully I'll figure it out eventually!

My church is having a retreat this weekend, so we are going somewhere to the East of Seoul to a little retreat center in the mountains. Cherry blossom season is coming really soon, so maybe things will be super beautiful out there! Apparently the cherry blossom season proper is supposed to start on April 5th. Hopefully we'll get a preview!

I'm in charge of food/meals for the retreat, and it has been a lot of fun to plan that kind of stuff again! It was definitely harder to plan for this than for other trips though. I never realized how many little pieces of information have to be put together. In America, I know if I should go to Wal Mart, Aldi, Sam's or the Gordon Food store for the best quality/price. I know exactly what is available. I know that there are 21 usable slices of bread in a Wal Mart brand sandwich loaf. In Korea, things are a bit harder, and take a bit longer. However, thanks to some help from some Koreans along the way, I think that we won't starve this weekend, and we were able to come in just under budget!

This will only be the third time I've been outside of Seoul city limits since I arrived here almost 8 months ago, and one of those times was to travel to the airport to come back to America, so it doesn't really count. I'm excited to spend some time in what will hopefully turn out to be countryside! Maybe we will even be able to see some stars!!

Have I been in Korea for too long?

I was talking with one of my Stateside friends tonight, and I asked her opinion on a shirt I was contemplating buying. At first, she couldn't believe that I was considering buying the top for myself. She thought that it had a strange cut and the graphic on it didn't make any sense. I thought it was really cute, I just wasn't sure if it was work appropriate...

It's a little cat chasing butterflies across some cute flowers! Naturally, I would wear pants under it. Who knows... Maybe my fashion sense (which, let's face it, was never really trendy to start with) is turning Korean. 

What do you all think? Should I order this top? This is a serious question! The fate of my fashion integration may hinge on the answer.