This week has been unusually busy and stressful. Our new school is a lot more hectic than our old one, and this week I found myself overburdened by report cards, test grading, presentations, and general book grading. I believe I've had over 150 books to grade in the past week, including the things I haven't graded yet. On top of that, we have an "open class" next month to plan for... (AKA happy fun time for parents, performing for the "Queens" of Korea for us teachers... and any moment they might decide to say, "Off with her head!").
Let's take a deep breath...
This weekend should be fun, though. I plan to hang out with some girlfriends over the course of the weekend. I don't have any photoshoots, and I'm a little happy to finally have an opportunity to sleep in and get some housework done!
Ben and I got invited to go to the Lotus Lantern Festival for Buddha's Birthday in May! That should be a lot of fun, despite the crowded nature of a festival in Seoul. I'm excited to go... supposedly it's one of the most beautiful and important events in Korea.
On a darker note, I saw something sobering today on my way to pick up lunch. In Korea, we often see trucks with scaffolding/cranes lifting people or objects up to the higher floors of buildings. In all our time here, we haven't seen an accident yet, not even a fallen item from movers. Today there was an accident on "Hagwon-ga", our school's street. Evidently a man was in the basket pretty high up (third or fourth floor, I think) when the crane broke. The basket tipped, and the worker fell. He wasn't attached to any safety harnesses. I didn't see it happen, but I had to walk past the scene to get to the bakery, and it was pretty messy. Paramedics and policemen were everywhere. The man was unconscious, being placed on a gurney, and there was a lot of blood. A woman was crying into a phone with blood all over her hands. I don't know if the man lived or died, but it was a bit scary. Disasters can happen to anyone at any time. I doubt I'll think about it too much after this week, but as I said, it is sobering to think about.
Enough of that. Spring is finally here, and the cherry blossoms have bloomed and fallen. Only a few stalwart stragglers still hang on. Ben and I are very happy (if occasionally stressed), but we anxiously look forward to our time off in July. We aren't going anywhere... just taking the opportunity to relax!
In later posts, I'll try to stick to more of a theme. Mom has told me some specifics she thought might be interesting, and I will try my best to pick some of them!
Until next time,
Rebekah
