The past month

Since our vacation in Jeju, we have been very busy at both work and in our free time.

The highlight of these past few week has been a new addition to our home. We are "fostering" a dog from a local pet sanctuary until the end of our time in Korea. Her name is Dori, and she is a small, quiet white dog (at least part Maltese) who loves head rubs and knocking over the kitchen trash can to find food. When we took her in from the sanctuary, she was having a difficult time adjusting to life at the shelter (she had recently returned from another foster stay) as the other dogs were picking on her and not letting her eat her food. We are very happy to provide her a temporary home, and it makes our lives a little more joyful to have a little one to excitedly greet us when we return home from work. We have posted a picture of her in our photobucket (click on the link under "Pictures").

Both Scott and Amy have had highs and lows at work this past month. We cherish the small moments when one our students improves either in behavior or learning, or simply when they do or say something funny, but still both struggle with our "problem" classes (mostly the jr. high level students) and with the ridiculous and sexist management of the schools. Amy also had a hard week when her boss, who she got along with really well and felt like she had good communication with, suddenly left the school. We are unsure whether she quit or was fired, but either way Amy misses the positive atmosphere that her ex-boss brought to the school.

Next week Rochelle, our friend, will be leaving the school and a new couple will be coming to replace her. Scott's schedule will therefore be undergoing some good changes and he will most likely have less classes as there are two new teachers instead of one. Amy's schedule has also been undergoing changes lately, for the worse, and she now has to teach an extra 50 minutes (until 9:20 pm) on Wednesday without any extra time off or pay. As her schedule gets later and more erratic, it makes keeping a consistent eating and sleeping pattern difficult, and also makes sharing meals as a couple difficult.

In our free time, we have been doing our best to go on adventures, meet new people, and make friends. We occasionally go out to dinner with co-workers and their friends, and we recently have a discovered a British-style pub that we enjoy spending time at. We also volunteer at the orphanage when we can, and attend church most Sundays.
We are excited for the cooler weather that has just started to arrive, and we are hoping to explore more of Ulsan and go on hikes often.

Next weekend we will start a 6-day vacation for Chuseok (the Korean version of America's Thanksgiving), and we will travel to the northern part of the country for some time in a national park and then in Seoul. We are looking forward to spending some time away from Ulsan.