Preparations

It’s been longer than usual between entries. Things have been pretty busy. We had an orientation/training meeting for new teachers at the community college. It was all about paperwork, record keeping, testing and registration of new students. Since these are off-site classes, most of the students won’t/can’t come to the main campus to register. There is also a continuous enrollment policy which allows students to enter the class anytime in the first 8 weeks. So the off-site instructors are responsible for intake testing and registration for all the new students who arrive at our site. I can have a teaching assistant to take care of that. Right now, there is not one available. I am free to recommend anyone (not a relative) whom I think would be a good candidate and give them my supervisor’s phone number. It was a 5 hour meeting and there was so much information and everything that my head was literally spinning when it was all over. I had also worked a 5 hour shift at the store that day and gone directly to campus for the meeting.

This morning I am resting and catching my breath. I’ve had some fun, too. I spent Tuesday afternoon window shopping and having coffee with an old friend from college. It was great. She doesn’t live very close, so I don’t see her often. She also has an unusual work schedule and it is hard to talk to her on the phone. She came out to Korea for her vacation during the summer of 2003 just a couple of months before I returned to the United States. It was so much fun to show her around. She has been to Europe several times, but that was her first time in Asia. I took her to all my favorite places- the green tea plantation at Boseung, Sosoewon garden. Then in Seoul we went to Gyungbok Palace and Insadong (a kind of traditionl art district with galleries, antique shops, tea houses, etc.) We also went to Pusan and explored for a weekend. It is the second largest city in Korea and is right on the coast on the far south of the peninsula. We went to a spa and to the beach.

The last three weeks there have also been rehearsals for The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, which my church is doing for our pageant during the service time next Sunday. This is the last week of rehearsals and it has been so fun. I'm playing one of the "Ladies' Aide Society" women in the church who gossips and is generally condescending and annoying. The story is a play within a play. The main character is trying to direct a Christmas pageant with a group of neglected kids who act like juvenile delinquents and scare all the other children from volunteering to play the parts in the pageant. It is a wonderful book and was made into a TV movie sometime in the 80's. At the end, it is really sweet and moving for all the silliness and laughs before the children start performing the "pageant".

I took some money from my paycheck and bought the paper and envelopes for my Christmas cards this year. I like to rubber stamp, so sometimes I make all my Christmas cards by hands. I’m keeping them simple. But the dye ink is taking forever to dry on the card stock which is incredibly non-absorbent. I printed the front of about 18 cards yesterday and there are still some spots that are not dry enough to fold and stack because they will smudge.