as always, it's been a busy week. however, i did have one full evening with nothing planned, and it ended up being the most beautiful & relaxing time i have had in a long while. as i get older, i think i am more fully able to grasp the concept of sabbath & how important it is to our well-being! since experiencing a tiny bit of that this past week, i made the decision that i will always keep one evening free in my week. it will be a time for me to sit and unwind and relax...it's so healthy! coffee and dinner and appointments can be pushed to the next week. make sure you are taking time to take care of yourself. you're no good to anyone else when you are exhausted and stressed out of your mind!

the creeping crud found me on wednesday and has yet to release it's nasty hold. like a true idiot, i forgot to close my window when i fell asleep that night, so i was inhaling the yellow dust (refer to previous post) for a straight 8 hours. not surprisingly, i woke up the next morning hacking up a lung and barely able to breathe. i have been drinking so much water and hot tea, but i still haven't been able to kick it. the best way i can describe it is to have you imagine what it would feel like if your throat was lined with sandpaper. it's really disgusting...and pretty much the worst thing that could happen to a teacher when you have to really project your voice to 5 or 6 classes each day. by the end of the teaching day on friday, i thought i was gonna die. so moral of the story: if you are a teacher or a singer, avoid korea - or any asian countries, for that matter - in the springtime!

several weeks ago, i met a missionary couple who've been serving in india. korea is home for them, so they are here on a short sabbatical til may. we really hit it off and have kept in contact since we first met. their english is really good and they are just sweet, sweet people. we were able to meet for dinner and coffee this week, and it ended up being a 3 or 4 hour ordeal! we kept talking and laughing and enjoying each other's company until we realized it was getting really late. i will miss them when they return to india in a month or so. :( they have a difficult ministry there, so be sure to keep them in your prayers.

we had birthday week this week, with 2 of our native english teachers celebrating another year. tim got a double celebration with euchre on wednesday and dinner/cake on thursday. we celebrated john's birthday yesterday with some homemade mexican food and noraebong, or korean karaoke. soo-in recommended that we also try the korean photobooths. they are just like those machines you see in the malls back in america, but they are really, really popular here. koreans love to take pictures of themselves...enough that my cellphone comes with 2 built in cameras - one in the back (like normal), and one in the front to take pictures of yourself! hahaha.
i experienced a new dish this week: shabu shabu. you can see a recipe here. basically, you start with a hotpot of vegetables and broth that is boiling hot. then you cook thin slices of beef in the pot. once most of the beef and veggies are gone, you dump in a big pot of noodles to cook in the hot broth. at the restaurant we visited, once we finished the noodles, they brought us a huge pot of fried rice. i thought i was going to explode but it was so delicious.
time to shower and get ready for my day. hopefully i will defeat the yellow dust death today. everyone enjoy your week!