This past weekend I ended up staying in Seogwipo to dive.  I woke up Saturday morning to pouring rain and decided it was a good idea not to camp.  Apparently the rest of the group had the same idea and nobody went to Udo.  Oh well, there's still time.  Anyway, I ended up doing 3 dives.  I had two daytime dives in Munsom Bay where the visibility was 18m+, and there were tons of fish.  At one point I had stripeys (little yellow and black striped fish) following my hand as I went around in circles.   They'd even get bold enough to try and take a nip at my finger.  Another time I ended up being surrounded by thousands of silver fish with yellow lines going down their backs.  Every where I turned, there were fish as far as I could see.  It was really amazing and still so peaceful and quiet.  There were just three divers in our group; myself, Tanja (assistant dive master) and Marcel from Germany, a trained dive instructor.  Needless to say, I was the least experienced there, but still we were all considered experienced divers and could have a little more freedom and less worry in the water. 
The night dive was just as incredible as before.  Definitely more Octopi this time, but no stone fish or lion fish.  I did get to see some squid and scorpion fish, a large box fish and a puffer fish.  The box fish was so chill, he swam right along my finger as I held it out.   After diving we all gathered with Ralf in the dive shop and bs'd over a few pitchers of Max and some snacks, discussing diving spots all over the world (which I know nothing about), cheese and German culture.  It ended up being a great day that kept me away from home from 9am till midnight.   And Ralf said he'd like for me to help at the shop when Tanja leaves to go back to Germany.  It'll be a great way to get some more experience in diving, and maybe one day it will all come in handy.  I mean, what else am I going to do in October? 

School is still the same old.  I think I'd really enjoy it, or at least be able to appreciate it more if we just had some vacation time.  One of my co-teachers asked me what it would take for me to stay on for another year.  My response was:  Lauran would need to move here, and I'd have to be guaranteed at least two weeks in winter off and two weeks in summer.  I'm so jealous of all my EPIK (public school) friends going to Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines and Japan, while I sit in school teaching kids that don't really even want to learn English.  Some of my kids I love, others I detest.  I really didn't think you could dislike a young child so much, until I met Dexter.  He is just the epitome of everything you hope your child does not become.  He picks his nose and either eats it or puts it on somebody else.  When he sneezes, if we're lucky enough for him to cover his mouth, we usually see some white seepage from his Korean snot rockets firing through his fingers.  When Candy is teaching the kids a new dance to go along with some music they are learning, he chooses instead to do roundhouse and sweeper kicks with the occasional right-hand chop, typically whilst wearing a cape.  Today when we were coloring flags of English speaking countries, he decided to color the American flag with a yellow box and pink stripes.  Pretty close, right?  The Canadian flag was brown, and Australia came out purple.  No, he's not colorblind, he just sucks.  Dealing with Dexter has definitely taught me some patience, which I'm thankful for, but I'd give it all up to be rid of him once and for all.  His mother even came in to talk to me (through a translator) about her troublesome child, and even though I told her he does not pay attention and distracts other children, his behavior has not changed at all. 

On another note, (Gog you will appreciate this), we were teaching the kids how to greet people in a few languages.  Japanese, Hebrew, English, Maori, and German.  One kid asked 'Muggs Teacher, why American and no Korean?', to which I replied, 'Because without America, there would be no Korea.'  Obviously too young to understand the (kind of) joke, and the fact that the Americans fought to preserve a South Korean in the early 50's and have since stationed over 20,000 troops in the country just so Kim Jong-Il doesn't go a little too stir crazy and change the Republic of Korea into his Democratic (Ha!) Peoples Republic of Korea.  Despite that the elderly and less educated here will still spat at us or talk trash as we walk by and are offended hearing us speak too much English at a bar where they are yelling in Korean and coughing up lungs.  Yeah, so I hope that wasn't too stereotypical 'Amurcan', and no I won't be getting any tattoos with of a bald eagle holding a rose in its' mouth in front of a billowing Ol' Glory.  As many problems as America has, and it sure has plenty, it's still a pretty great country.  Especially because I can buy real cheese and turkey there. 

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