Today I woke up to huge snowflakes swirling down from the sky. The first snow in Hongsan! It was really exciting and beautiful, but the snow didn’t stick. It’s not cold enough yet, I suppose, though it did sporadically snow a few other times today. The wind was biting, too. Just about everyone has been sick recently and I finally came down with it today, too. I have been feeling it coming on—sore throat, etc.—for a little while, but I’ve been holding it off until now. I guess sharing close quarters with three sickies, not to mention having students cough over me all day, finally did me in. It’s too bad it had to happen today…I can hardly enjoy any of the relaxing things I wanted to do because I only want to sleep!
I walked into town today to finally get the haircut I’ve been meaning to get for months now. I was about to take scissors to my own hair, so I figured it was about time. I ran into a bunch of my first grade students as they were leaving school and four of the girls ended up taking me to a salon—I think it was owned by the mother of one of the girls. I got a great cut (finally got all the dead hair chopped away, after a year of a scraggly mop) for only $5!
I went for my usual weekend afternoon walk and today of all days Eun Ho decided to come with me. It was cold and the kid is a slow walker, so it wasn’t terribly fun. I was impressed, though…we were out for an hour and he never even complained. I expected (and wanted) him to turn back, but he didn’t. I think he was disoriented, though. I overheard him tell Ye Eun he didn’t know where we went and he asked me at one point if we were walking to school when we were headed the opposite direction. Sometimes I forget he’s only 8 years old. I was a little sad I had to cut my walk short and walk slower, but it was fun watching him do silly things like run up hills backwards. The kid is seriously such a goofball!
I spent the rest of the afternoon contemplating lesson plans, finishing up some knitting, and starting to read a book on Korea. I had vague plans to do some Christmas gift wrapping and shopping, but that’s probably not going to happen anytime soon. Too sickly…must lay down and rest…