Lots of teaching Monday

Whew, what a day!

I've gone from teaching nothing in weeks, to teaching nearly every class today. It's been fun, though. Mr. B. has been in a really cooperative mood, so the teaching feels like it's quite smooth and that the kids are actually benefiting from both of us being in the classroom. My goal this week is to write at least 500 words of my article, but I didn't get any done today because I was so busy. I had about 40 minutes free at the very end of the day, but by that time my nose and sinuses were so sore, my head didn't feel like it could handle much more.

I've been sick now for over a month. I don't think that there's much point in going back to the doctor. My symptoms are server, just persistent. After reading through some stuff written by others here in Korea, this is really common at this time of year. It seems like half the foreigner community of Korea is sick for the entire months of April and May because of the yellow dust and other allergens in the air. I've got the name of some allergy pills and a nasal spray, so I'm going to the pharmacy tonight to try and at least get some relief. Hopefully I just have to last until June and it'll all go away.

This does not make staying in Korea seem at all desirable though. Let's see... Winter in freezing cold, and while snow is neat, it gets not so neat quite quickly. Then spring, which is apparently just allergy/respirator infection central, even for people like me who don't have problems back home. Then summer, which by all accounts is just non-stop torrential rain, heat, and humidity. Autumn in lovely. Sooo, 3/4 of the year suck! Fail, Korea. Fail.

Good news! Brook and I got all out tickets and accommodation booked for our trip to Japan in July! I'm super excited! It's going to be really hot and humid, but surely it can't be any worse that places I've already been? I had wonderful holidays in it before, so Japan shouldn't be any different. I'm just hoping Brook will be ok. He can be sensitive to that kind of thing - We'll have to be careful to drink lots of water.

So, the plan is: 4 days in Korea, 7 days in Japan, and then 3 days in Korea (including my birthday!). We're going to Osaka and Kyoto in Japan. Both places look fascinating. Woohoo! Dreams of this holiday are going to keep me going for the next couple of months.

Ok, today's five things:

1) I had salmon and eggs for breakfast. Salmon is so cheap here!

2) Lots of fun teaching today.

3) The prospect of spending even a couple of hours with an unblocked nose...

4) Gorgeous weather, again. It's so much easier to be happy when it's sunny.

5) I talked to all my peeps on Skype over the weekend (apart from you mum!). It was really good to catch up and find out how everyone is :)