Well, after 2 days of teaching, John loooooooves his new teaching job! He's really enjoying his classes. He had training all last week - did I say that already? - and is now on his own in his own classroom...no assistant.
So far, we seem to be adapting pretty well to John's new hours. We all get up later - around 9-10am-ish. Then while I get breakfast going, John sometimes goes out for the daily groceries (we have a tiny fridge which does not hold much - we were spoiled in DaeSan, had a huge fridge, and shopped every other week...! Now we are shopping the way that I think is more usual to the Korean culture anyway.
We have a couple hours before John leaves around 1pm for class. He's leaving early this week to be more prepared for his classes...his usual hours will be M/F 2-9pm and T/W/Th 2:30-8:30pm. Since we have a late breakfast (10-11am), the kids & I start on school and then eat lunch around 2-3pm. Then, if John's not gotten the daily groceries that morning, we might go for a walk before supper, which has been around 7-8pm and then have a snack after John gets home and we've done something together.
Many times, we go back out walking after he gets off work. Most stores are open til 11pm and many are open 'til later. The city itself seems to run on a "late-night" schedule. Many high schools don't even let out until 11pm, and then some of the kids go on to academies until 1am. So we go because sometimes neither John nor I have gotten the next day's groceries, but many times lately it's because right now we're trying to find our way around town, find the markets & stores we like, and are still searching for an alarm clock for John. Thank goodness he would probably never be late for class anyway!...but we'd still like to have one to get up earlier.
Bedtime has been between midnight and 2am this past week. We're hoping to make that a little earlier, but as I write this and the kids finished up with their snack and are saying their prayers, it is 1am. We got a lot of initial deep cleaning done today, as well as rigged up laundry poles around the entryway and hallway areas...we still have no dryer and our laundry has been hanging damp for 2 days now. Hopefully this will do the job!
Room Updates! - When I got back from Seoul this past weekend, all the furniture we acquired from the last English teacher was already moved into our apartment. I spent a lot of Monday switching it around to my tastes, and may switch things again later... I like variation every so often and it drives John crazy sometimes - especially when I need to see the furniture in each of the possible new positions before deciding which one I like best...for the time being. When the house is smaller, though, it does limit the options...one thing for which I know John is grateful for!!! So here is our living room - as it stands now! :-) :-) We have our couch plus the acquired one, a desk, and a 2-person table.
And here is the kids' finished bedroom. You may think it is a bit empty. That is because their bed is folded up each morning which you can see at the bottom left. This leaves them room to play with their legos and toys during the day. The grey luggages we brought from the States have been well-worn and once again play the role of clothes-dresser. There is also a wardrobe around the corner for hang-up clothes & dresses.
Here is the "school room," "storage room," and the "toy room." We've not quite decided what to call it, and depending on what we're referring to, it's called all three. The first picture is of all the school/art related things...
...then, looking from inside the room back towards the door is the toy & game section. To the right is another, smaller shelf with storage and extra-type stuff on it.
And that wraps up today! I just realized I didn't get a picture with James today. I'll make sure he's on one next time. He's here...I think he was just finishing his chores when I snapped the pictures for the blog.
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