Recap

As my father most graciously pointed out- the blog posts have been lacking. I know it. I'm very sorry. So how about a recap of the end of April, beginning of May?
April was a straight month of work (as was most of March, with the very first weekend being an exception). April was also cold, which means we didn't travel anywhere. Even living overseas it's easy to get into a day-to-day routine/rut. Wake up, quiet time, writing time, school, dinner time, free time, TV show and bed. Wake up, rinse, repeat. The routine extends to the weekends too. We've spent a good deal of Saturdays working on our artistic pursuits. David's been doing a good deal of photoshoots and editing for those shoots (you can see the results here). I've been fervently working on the rough draft of a new novel, which means that most of the time when I'm not at school or enjoying the company of my husband and friends I'm glued to the computer screen in a creative flurry.
However, a few things of note have occurred.
The cherry blossoms, which I posted a picture of in one of the previous posts, came and went--heralding a very needed and appreciated spring. As David commented the other day, "I've never loved or needed spring more in my life." And I believe the statement to be mostly true. Six months is a long time to be leafless and cold. How do the Northlanders do it every year? I almost cry now every morning when I walk outside and see green on the sidewalk. Green. I've decided it's my new favorite color. So beautiful and full of life. Anyway- where were we? The cherry blossoms. That's right. David was ecstatic for the cherry blossoms and taking pictures with them. Although I was annoying sick with a sinus infection for over two weeks, we did a little photoshoot, which was fun. He also did a few shoots with coworkers and church friends.
One of these photoshoots was an entire day outing to Seoul Grand Children's Park. We went with some friends to the park. The place was huge, complete with a miniature zoo, flower gardens and even a marshland for me to get homesick over. The place was rather crowded with families and over lunch I saw one of the most fascinating yet traumatic scenes yet. There was a huge bang that sounded like a small explosion and several loud, angry yells. I looked up from my hamburger and peered through the crowd to see a Korean man going berserk about something. His wife was trying to calm him down and he actually hit her in the face. She recovered and tried to calm him down again. That time he tried to choke her. A security guard stepped in to literally save her neck. There was a lot more yelling (again, in Korean) and a stranger came and handed the lady a severely damaged camera (like, a David kind of camera, worth a lot of $$$) which turned out to be what the enraged man threw in the first place. The whole scene was rather dramatic and morbid. The rest of the day at the park was pretty satisfying though.
Last weekend we moved apartments, a task which sucked up our entire Saturday. We moved to an apartment with the exact same layout and size as our old one... except for several subtle differences. We're on the 12th floor now, which gives us a much better view. Our window has real curtains instead of blinds and our stove only has one working burner. And our loft has several inches of depth missing, which means our bed has to be without a stand at the bottom. It's really strange sitting with the exact same setup and catching the differences out of the corner of our eyes. As if we moved, but not really.
This week has offered a welcome break for us in the occurrence of "Children's Day." It fell on a Wednesday this year, which was a little strange for us (just the Wednesday off). Children's Day is the one day out of the year that parents set especially aside to spend the day with their children. Theme parks, zoos and the sort are a mob scene on these days, so David and I decided to stick local. We climbed the mountain near our apartment and took the subway to a Starbucks coffee place to enjoy a chai latte (taste of home!). On the walk to the subway, in our elation of the holiday, we did some rather sobering math. Even if we had every Wednesday off for the whole year, we would still work more days than the average American school teacher. I feel so terrible for Korean children, driven so hard and so long at such an early age. Apparently President Obama commended the president of Korea on their education policy and the Korean president laughed about it, saying he wasn't sure why, because Korea's system has so many problems.
Anyway, off that soapbox! I hope the update was satisfying. We should be taking at least one trip this month, so I'll have something more exciting to post about soon.