The Categorizing of Last Weeks Events
Many things happened last week. Here they are, categorized in no specific order.

The Fixing of the Internet
The Internet is fixed. Don't ask me how. I am still confused.

The Leaving of Scott and Al
The long dreaded day arrived on Saturday morning when Scott and Allison took off for Nepal. Allison will trek while Scott will impersonate a Yeti. The pictures will be interesting. I'm planning on meeting up with them in Thailand in December for some scuba diving and laying out in the sun. Still, life around here isn't the same. Who will order pizza for me? In a style befitting both Scott and Al's time here, I have written an essay on the topic of "What my friends mean to me," in the words of a young ESL learner.

Scot and Alison be my friend.
Upon Sunday in a morning we order of the pizza,
Because on Saturday we drinks of the beer,
And pizza is of making us feel gooder.
We likes to being watching a videos and hiking in the tree, and laughing on the people.
We sings on the No-reh-bong and at the Type O Negative and the I Mother Earth.
I feels of the time that things are the beautiful and funny be.
But upon the Saturdays they drive the plane in the sky.
And gone to the land of mountain and ices are these.
Sad am I but happy be.

Amen.

The Forced March
I am a firm believer that the best optimists are the pessimists. If you expect things to be bad then more often than not you're pleasantly surprised when things aren't as bad as fore casted. Some may say that this is setting the bar low. I say the bar sucks and then I am surprised to find that the bar is prettier and not as ugly as I thought. I know, that's a rather obscure analogy.

This is all leading up to the Annual Avalon Hiking Trip that occurred this Saturday. This is also leading up to me eating my words and admitting that the trip was not as bad as I had feared it would be. Yes, there was the waking up early in the morning and standing in lines and waiting around and getting yelled at in Korean. However, the hike was actually very beautiful and there was very little forced community bonding. Everyone was free to move at their own pace and stick with whomever they chose. For a forced outing it wasn't half bad.

Halloween?
Halloween came and went. I tried to instill some Halloween spirit in my students and really, that isn't too hard to do with nine year old children. They're content to pretend that they're monsters any day of the year, so on that special day we cut out masks, they had to say "trick or treat", explain what their mask was about and then I doled out candy. It was fun all the same, but it wasn't like the Halloween's at home. Understandably because I'm in Korea, but still, these kids don't know what they're missing out on. Do you know how much loot a kid could get here if they tackled one of the twenty story apartment buildings? This place is an untapped gold mine.

Kat did buy a pumpkin, which was unexpected and pretty cool. she carved it, while I drank wine, commented on her carving skills and cautioned her on the use of her sharp knife. There's a scary story. After that we put on the scariest movie we could find, "The Corpse Bride" and laughed ourselves to sleep. Halloween could have been worse.

The Arrival of the Newbies
Two new guys started work last week, Nathan and Jeff. They are welcomed.

The Arrival of Misty
Kat's sister Misty arrived on Saturday and we all welcomed her.

The Arrival of Cold Weather
Cold weather arrived on Monday and we all welcomed it. Kind of.

Pics of related events follow: