i feel a change comin on...

lots of good stuff happening in life:

*there are a few 50 degree days in the 10 day forecast and i say with full confidence that spring is ON IT'S WAY!!!! i don't think it's a false alarm thing like you get in the midwest this time of year. i have a suspicion that korean spring comes sooner, and it also comes with less drastic weather changes. every morning as i'm biking to school, the air has more and more of that earthy dirt things-about-about-to-start-growing smell.

*because i no longer what to curl up in a ball and hibernate every time i step out the door, i can start running outside again! i took a bit of a break from the running game this winter (about mid-january i felt my body screaming at me..."HEY!!!! CAROLYN!!! we need a break. we're tired of running. let's do something else for awhile.") but the past two mornings i have been able to run outside and i feel very refreshed. (and a little sore.) it's just so nice to connect with nature again and listen to my feet crunch the dead leaves and hit the dirt path around the lake. i think i might try to go hiking this weekend so that me and nature's relationship can get fully back on track.

*we started the new kindergarten this week (no, this is not the good thing b/c it's adding more work and taking more energy energy from my life), but the good news is that every friday, guess what i'm teaching my little korean chatter-boxes? YOGA!!!! that's right, i am officially a kids yoga teacher. how did this happen you ask? they suggested we bring someone in to teach the kids yoga on fridays (you gotta love the difference b/t physical education from americans and asians), and somehow it came about that i do yoga, and while i tried to hold back my urge to lunge forward and scream "I'LL TEACH IT!!! I WANNA TEACH IT! ME ME ME!!!!" it became quite clear that i would become the tango pango yoga instructor. i've got oodles of ideas from the internet and from my yoga teacher, and i am anticipating hillariousness mixed with utter chaos mixed with me feeling depressed b/c the kids are better at it than i am.

*it's my birthday this month!

*every day after school, i teach private lessons and they have turned out to be a wonderful thing. on mondays wednesday and fridays, i teach my boss's son, who actually is turning out to be one of the coolest people i've met in korea. he's 20 and is heading to america for college this summer, and i'm helping him become fluent and learn how to write english essays. out conversations are stimulating and honest and inpsiring and i always leave feeling energized and that good feeling when you've really connected with someone. on tuesdays and thursdays, i teach 2 kids ages 14 and 16, and last night i shared with them the beautiful gift of gaucomole, which they'd never had and never heard of. (mexican food hasn't really taken off here for the obvious reason that there are no mexicans.) they loved it. if they remember nothing else from our lessons, they will remember that gaucomole.