Hot Weather... and getting hotter

The past week has been absolutely beautiful here weatherwise! Everyday, it has been sunny and between 20 and 25 degrees celcius, so nice. I'm not used to such an early spring, but it's quite nice. The trees are now in full bloom, the world is green again (well, if you're looking away from the asphalt and apartment buildings). We got to Korea at the end of August and it was extremely hot, about 38 degrees on most days. But I have since been told that June and July are actually the hottest months here, so I shudder to think what the temperatures will be. Coming in at the end of August we also skipped the rainy season. So, we are in for a treat there in the coming months.. starting half way through June I think. It rains really hard almost every day. Right now though, I am enjoying the warm weather and the sunshine.

Already however, I have had to restrict my running to after the sun goes down. The afternoons are too hot to run in. Although it is only about 23 degrees, the humidity is usually between 85 and 100 percent so the weather webpage informs us. So, I don't run in the heat. It is still quite warm in the evenings. I now run only 3-4 days a week, usually every second day. I don't know what I'll do for exercise when the rainy season starts, it will be very windy as well as very rainy, probably almost impossible to run in. Maybe I'll have to join the gym again, or maybe just the swimming pool. Who knows?

Although we are both well adjusted to life here and it doesn't bother us as much as it used to, we are both looking forward to getting home in a little less than four months. We have started counting down the days.... only 112 more to go! (112 days makes it seem so much longer than 4 months). It will be so good to see everyone again and to finally see my three new nephews who aren't so new anymore, but they're new to me, so I can't wait to see them! Sometimes we talk about when we will go home.. how excited we'll be to be teaching our last class, getting on the plane, arriving in Toronto, knowing that we are only a two hour flight away from home and then landing at the Halifax airport... we will both be very excited. Now we are starting the four month task of shopping for souveniers, something we haven't done any of yet... we must be the worst tourists ever... although I guess we're not really tourists since we've been living here for the whole year.

Tomorrow we have the day off... long weekend yay!!! May 5th is Children's Day in Korea, and it is a holiday. This year Buddah's birthday also lands on May 5th, denying us the regular two holidays in May in Korea... they're combined into one this year. The week surrounding Buddah's birthday is an interesting time around here. People buy lantrens from the monks and they are all hung in the streets, each lantren you buy is supposed to bring more blessings on to your family and loved ones. It sounds like an elaborate scheme to get money if you ask me. But it does make for colourful streets. I haven't taken any pictures of the lantren lined streets yet, I'll have to do that and post them. There are also many traditional ceremonies, parades and so on.

Well, I'd better sign off for now... this is getting way to long for anyone to bother reading.

Deborah