August Update: Summer Break

 

August was a very transitional month. We finished English camp, I got my eight days of summer vacation which I spent relaxing at home, and we started the second semester back up at school.

Everyone seems to finally be falling back into their regular routines and as we do the weather has started to hint of fall with cooler evenings and drier air.

If the end of summer is truly in sight then I must say that this was an exceptionally mild summer. Save the week or so of 100+ degree heat we had in July I don’t feel like this was nearly as bad as last summer.

During my vacation I tried to make the most of the sun by renting a car with a friend one day and driving over to the Daecheon Beach area to swim and relax by the water.

 

 

 

The drive itself was lovely and not too far of a haul from Daejeon. Plus as someone accustomed to driving everyday back in the US I enjoyed the very familiar feeling of being on the highway singing along to songs I’ve loved forever.

 

 

 

 

 

The beach wasn’t anything mind-blowing but just being near the ocean and the smells and sounds that mean home to me is always incredibly refreshing.

It was a lovely little day trip and I would definitely recommend the Daecheon area for anyone looking for a little getaway.

 

The rest of my summer vacation was spent pretty much just chilling around Daejeon. I played about as much Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild as a person can in the span of about 5 days and got almost nothing from my “summer to do” list done.

But when school rolled around at least I was well rested.

And finally it did. We started up again on the 20th and man could I feel how long all of us hadn’t had real class.

 

 

 

 

I decided to give myself an easy first week back and do a kind of summer vacation talk/welcome back to school lesson that ended with a word search. Which, MAN was that the best idea I’ve ever had.

I never do those kind of activities in class so I felt like I could get away with it this time. And they LOVED it. Even my rowdiest classes were silent in focus. It was bizarre.

 

Some other randomness from the month includes…

 

Seeing these THREE pieces of asparagus for almost 5 dollars.

 

 

 

Seeing this man with a rabbit on a leash at the train station.

 

 

Visiting the National Museum of Korea

 

 

 

And having some really good moments with my older kids. My second and third graders are coming up on two years with me and we’ve all gotten very comfortable together. I love them and things have been good lately.

 

 

That’s about it for August! I can’t believe we’re already this far into the year. I genuinely feel like we just started yesterday. Given the number of difficult classes I have this year there are some ways in which I’m ready for this school year to be over. But the thought of my third graders graduating and leaving me, I’m not even a little bit ready for that.

Thanks as always for reading, I hope your August was good as well 🙂