Se He Bok Ma Nee Ba Deu Se Yo!

Literal Translation: Receive a lot of New Year's blessings!

This weekend is the Lunar New Year - celebrated in Korean and China. It will be the beginning of the year of the tiger. Neil and I are very excited to start a new year, as the last one has brought us mixed blessings.

This week had a lot of firsts - my first day of teaching at my new school, Neil's first time hit by a car and our first visit to the Geoje Island Hospital.

I know you're all wondering about my new school - but I'll update you on that later. First I just want to let everyone know that Neil is fine. He was hit at a corner while he was crossing the street. He hit the hood and windshield of the car and is very sore, but after 16 xr-ays the confirmed that nothing is broken - he is just sore and has some bruises. I think the windshield of the car ended up in worse shape than he did. The upside of the whole story is that somehow he got $350 of insurance money out of it - without any serious injuries to claim. I guess if we end up not doing well teaching here, we can go into the "getting hit by crazy Korean drivers" business.

I began work at a new school this week. I will be working for them for 5 months, and then in July will join Neil's school, when the other teachers leave. My new school is very nice. It is about an hour trip from our house, so I have a longer commute each day, but other than that it's great! My school is owned by a very nice Korean couple, Stephanie and Charles. They both teach, as does one other Korean teacher, Alley. I am the only English speaking teacher. The students are very nice - they are all excited to see me and say hi each day, and they all like to give me food for some reason. I have learned to not eat too much before I go to school because I will always be given food over the course of the afternoon by my different students.

This weekend is a long weekend for us - we both don't go back to school until Wednesday. We are heading to Busan today to spend 2 days there. Busan is the 2nd largest city in Korea. It is an hour and a half ferry ride from our island. We're looking forward to exploring a new place and should have lots of pictures when we get back. Then we will be celebrating the new year with some friend on the island on Monday! Look for lots of pictures once we're back!