it's wednesday.....

the week is half over and it feels as though i have been back at this school stuff for weeks now. the weekend by way too fast for me. i have been feeling pretty tired early in the evening all week. i have been fighting to stay awake until at least 9pm. hee hee. i never thought that would happen to me. i am trying to get myself on a normal sleep schedule though. so that has been the goal all this week.

monday i woke up at 5:30am and joined my neighbor, buffie, at the pool for an early morning swim. i realized that i need to be proactive about getting into shape. i swam for about 30 minutes or so but only swam 400 meters. back in the day that would have just been a warm up not an entire workout. :) times have changed and so has my body. i did it though and that was what really mattered. it was great to see my kids on monday and i had fun getting to catch up with all of them and hear what they had done over the break. some went skiiing, others went to different countries, and some just had a simple holiday at home. they all seemed to enjoy whatever they did. upon telling them my news they were quite excited. :)

tuesday the entire 4th grade took a field trip to the GM Daewoom plant that is located about an hour from school towards the airport. it was an interesting day and i had a great time. i learned many new things that i did not know before the trip. we leraned a lot about the company, got to sit in new cars and tour the assembly line plant where they put the cars together. some of the facts that i learned on the trip are:

• there are 30,000 parts that have to be on the car in the assembly line
• it takes about 17 hours for a car to be completed on the line
• there are four different parts of the car building process----press shop, body shop, paint shop, assembly line
• the safety standards vary from country to country
• GM Daewoo sells cars in 190 countries around the globe
• the new Saturn Vue is acutally a GM Daewoo Winstorm in Korea

it was an interesting trip and i think the kids had fun!

today started with another trip to the pool for 25 minutes of swimming. i could not believe that i really got up to go again. i managed to make the workout 500 meters this time which was nice. i was proud. the day was just wednesday. i have felt really out of the groove this week since i was away for so long. i am hoping that this will go away soon.

i am currently sitting in starbucks in sinchon with suzy "working". i think she really is doing work when i am just updating my blog and looking at wedding stuff. i tried to pull out some school work, but could not bring myself to do anything with it. i sit here in a place that is familiar but am surrounded by sounds of a language that i don't understand. it is so weird to me. although at times i find it socially liberating as i don't feel obligated to say hi or make small talk. the culture here lends itself to not being as friendly as texans are. no one really says hi to each other, excuse me does not translate, and people tend to keep to themself. odd at first, but i am also finding comfort in just "zoning out" and thinking about whatever i feel like. the only downfall to the starbucks in korea is the absence of decaf coffee. it is a bummer. i love the taste of coffee but have to sleep too. ugh! that is one thing i miss about starbucks from home.....the decaf option. :) instead i sip on a caramel cream frappuccino that has enough calories to claim meal status. the things we indulge for comfort!