Letters From Students

Three students left our hagwon today.  Three of my favorite students.  I’m super sad about it. Being that this is Korea and we have school 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year, I don’t really ever deal with elaborate goodbyes or end of year sadnesses.  Most students just sneak out the door on their last day and don’t come back. Today was different. It was sad.  I did get a couple really sweet goodbye letters and a really sappy goodbye from an eleven year old boy though.  But for being Halloween, it’s been a really emotional day.

Both these girls are finishing up 8th grade. They are best friends and would come hang out with me often in between classes. Letter one is from a student name Kate.  She is smart but she was impossible to get to speak in class. All she does is giggle. She also works daily as the English/Korean translator for the author of the second letter.  (Click the pictures to make them larger.)

A 20-Kilometer Day–Part 2

After Becki and I finished our mountain 5k and picked up our awards, we grabbed a taxi over to the Shintanjin side of Gyejoksan.  Here we met Lee Ann and Lydia for the 7k Barefoot walk.  I did this last year as well but this year went much smoother. When you arrive, you check your shoes at the bottom of the mountain and begin your hike. It’s about 2.5km up to the ridge for the 7km.

A 20-Kilometer Day–Part 1

In all honesty, I’m a little surprised that an ambulance wasn’t called yesterday. I definitely over-scheduled myself.  Me being me however, I just assumed I could do it without really working out the specifics.  And I did it.  And then slept for about 16 hours.

First on the docket was a mountain 5k at 8am. We really didn’t know when we signed up for it whether that 5k was actually on the mountain or on the street next to the mountain.  I was happy to find out the race was on the mountain because I’m really familiar with this particular one and like it an awful lot. And, now I can say that I’ve done a race on a mountain. Who else can say that? However, I was forgetting one very major  obstacle.  To do a race along the ridge, you must first climb the mountain. A mere 300 meters.  For you none-hiking folks, that’s like climbing 1,685 stairs, or the equivalent of about 112 staircases, and then arriving at the top 15 minutes before you begin your run.  Awesomeness.

The picture is blurry, sorry.  My number was my birthday backwards. That could only be a positive sign, right?