we are FINALLY starting to see a little bit of spring here in korea, and i couldn't be happier. saturday blessed us with an absolutely perfect day. a few friends and i decided to celebrate by attending a cherry blossom festival that is held at a local high school here in cheonan. i'd heard all about how beautiful these flowers were, but i was skeptical. my expectations were blown out of the water when we arrived. as always, i forgot my camera. the following are all straight from the photography mastermind known as my friend andy phelps. check his blog here. you should really show him some serious love, cause my blog would be picture-less without him. thanks andy. :) as you can see, it was a beautiful day with amazing flowers and wonderful people. this weather makes me so happy!

things at work are going decently well these days. there are always miscommunications and language barriers to overcome, but i'm happy overall. my teachers are starting to trust me a little more everyday and giving me more teaching time in the classroom. i love every chance i get to interact with my kids and it's good for them to hear a native speaker's english pronunciation. i had a sweet moment this week at my 2nd school when some of my 5th graders came into the office to hang out with me for a little bit. they wanted to see more pictures from america and hear some american music. they were overjoyed to see that i had some korean music on my ipod so we had an impromptu kpop singalong in the english office between 5th & 6th periods. hahaha. my kids are really cool (and some of their english is seriously impressive!) so i love the chance to hang out and get to know them both in and out of the classroom.

i have been meeting more and more korean friends every week and they keep my life exciting. unfortunately, this next week is midterm week at all universities in the area, so everyone is busy cramming for their tests. i didn't get to see any of them this weekend and won't be able to throughout this week. :( i'm really going through withdrawals! if this is any indication of what it will be like once i return to the states, we might be in serious trouble!

sorry this is a short update, but i've got to get some rest before the new work week starts tomorrow morning. i'll be back next week with more anecdotes. until then, enjoy the cherry blossom pictures! :)