I LIVE for the weekend.

Not that I don't enjoy teaching,..my kids are great and I'm really liking my co-teachers...but weekends are the real reason for my happiness over here. This weekend Carol, Vanessa and I ventured around downtown Gwangju yet again...this place never gets old. We had a number of errands we wanted to do..(when i say errands i don't mean anything too important). Lunch, shopping for new glasses, scouting out a good manicure/pedicure salon, and finding Carol a new pair of cheap movie star sunglasses.

Anyway, we found ourselves in little hole in the wall nail shop. Just to remind you..prior to my life in Korea, i had considered manicures to be the most ridiculous thing to waste your money on. Well, times have changed and i realize what it feels like to treat yourself and be girly. I LOVE THEM. This particular day i thought I'd try, for the first time, a pedicure. The shop was really cool, clean and modern with bright green walls and white furniture. The pedicure stations consisted of huge leather lazy boy chairs with a whirl pool foot tub in front..nice! You might find this kind of strange..but the "pedicurist" tending to me was a man. A really handsome..manly Korean man..crazy. This is something you would NEVER see in North America. Gad, i love this country.

Sunday was even more enjoyable. Carol and I participated in a Breast Cancer "marathon" and i use that term lightly..there was 5km and 10km run. Well, you know me..i only run if my life depends on it. So i wasn't too confident about running period. However, when the fireworks blasted and the sea of pink shirts and hats began to move..i felt exhilarated. We ran probably 90 percent of the course with a few short walking breaks to catch our breath in the heat and smog. We finished the course by running into the World Cup Soccer stadium and rounding the track..SO COOL, and then through a finish line with cameras flashing and cheers ..it was soo much fun. I was tired...but not exhausted..and then next day..i feel a little tight but otherwise great. I can't believe...number one..that i ran 5 km. and number 2..that I'm interested in doing it again. Thanks Carol and Jessica for the encouragement.




We ended our fantastic Sunday with a trip to our favorite musician's house, Matt, where we met his mom who is visiting from Canada. There was a small crowd there and lots of great conversations. Then we filed into cabs and were off to some kind of small festival to watch Matt and Darren (Bikido) perform on stage. Like always they were great. We also got to see some kids performing acrobatics and some traditional music etc. What a great day!