I keep meaning to post, honest...

...and then I get sidetracked by everything else going on around here. I've got about 45 minutes until the banshees get here--that would be the two seven-year-old boys I "tutor" every Sunday afternoon. They could honestly care less about learning English, because they're kids and it's the weekend, so for two hours I mostly talk English at them and they repeat whatever I say and horse around. Last week was bad, I was so close to telling Catherine (who set me up with them) that I couldn't do it anymore after one of them literally ran away from me. I just need this extra money a little too bad, especially until I buy my plane ticket home next week. My winter vacation was going to be right at three weeks, but the prices are outrageous, so if I shave off a few days I save hundreds of dollars.

When I was downtown earlier, I saw a man with three chained monkeys on a street corner; I don't know if they were supposed to be doing tricks or what, he didn't really seem to have control of them. I've seen some sad-looking animals since I got here, but that was by far the worst.

On Friday before my class, one of my sweet sophomores offered me a snack. She does this everyday, and so far they've all been really good, like cookies and jello and stuff. This time, though, they were fish bones. Seriously, roasted fish bones topped with sesame seeds, spine and ribs and all. And it tasted like that bad fish smell, and it was barely 10 in the morning, so I politely nibbled before throwing it away and desperately rubbing my fingers on some curtains to get rid of the smell.

Yesterday, I got to hang out with my friends pretty much all day for our Halloween Movie Marathon. Amy is a year-and-a-half older than me, and Jason and Julianne are a bit older than her, so we all hang out together since everyone else is in their forties and up. Julianne cooked lunch and dinner, and I ate way too much candy and drank way way way too much Coke. I've been really good about limiting my soda intake here, so it was okay to splurge, but today I walked all the way home from downtown to make up for it. It's always fun to hang out with the other young people, and Jason and Julianne have nearly a decade of teaching in South Korea between them, so they have more stories and insights into the field of ESL. After listening to them, I know that I am for sure never teaching in Korea, it sounds awful.

I can't believe November is tomorrow! Where have the last few months gone? I'm having so much fun and still learning and seeing new things everyday, I'm really thankful to be here. I should probably sign off and start the banshee-proofing of my apartment...