Since the 6th grade lesson just happened to be, "How was your summer vacation?", I spent the whole Thursday telling and showing pictures of my vacation to my students. As bummed as I felt about vacation being over, sharing about it made me realize how wonderful it was regardless. And how thankful I should be to get any, remembering back to my 1st year in Korea and the 2 days plus weekend summer vacation. Ha!
Here's all the wonderfulness in summary:
-Songeun Summer English Camp! It was a lot of hard work to organize and plan but teaching was such a joy. Plus I was only working mornings so I had free time in the afternoon to....(#2)
-North Korean YWCA volunteering! This was a beautiful experience for me and the others who participated. Not only were the kids the cutest, sweetest, funniest, spunkiest things EVER but also the fellow Korean volunteers were amazing! One had just returned from IOWA, studying aboard there for the past year! Too crazy! Saying goodbye was sad but we will keep in contact and hopefully have an event with the students again this fall. :)
- Anne and Greg's wedding! Weddings are always fun. But weddings are even more fun when you are friends with and love both bride and groom. CONGRATS to them!
-Four days with the WHOLE Keegan crew together. Dan was able to fly up from North Carolina for a bit while I was back home. The last time I can remember us all being together was at my UNI graduation in May of '08. So it had been awhile. We spent one day in Fulton riding around on bikes, walked along the Mississippi then went back to the hotel and created a whirlpool in the small swimming pool there. Good times.
-Relaxing days at home and Peter's 15th birthday!
-Flowers and delicious spaghetti dinner from Markus upon my return. :)
-3 day trip to Namhae island with Markus and Kat. Outside our minbak (room) was a cornfield (yay!) and down the street was a beautiful beach. We laid on the beach, swam, got stung by mini jellyfish, kayaked out to a small island and climbed around on the rocks there. It was a fantastic way to end summer vacation.
September will be fun-packed month. From the 18th to the 26th Kat and I will venture off to Japan for the Chuseok holiday. Then on the 28th Mom and Molly will arrive and stay for two weeks. Exciting! That leaves only a few weeks of hum-drum before my contract is finished on October 29th. Wahoo! :)
More on my thoughts with leaving in the next blog....
