Spring

Time for another update on life in Korea. The weather is finally starting to warm up, and the trees are blooming. It is so pretty; definitely my favorite time of the year here. On Friday it was finally nice enough for me to enjoy my first bike ride. I had ridden to the pool about a month ago and got a flat tire. I finally found where I could get it fixed and had my bike all tuned up while I was there. Last week, It had a pleasant ride along the river. I think I rode around 10 miles and felt really good...not a bad start. I wasn't even sore the next day!

Things have been busy around TCIS. Last weekend we hosted APAC Girls Soccer. This was the first time that TCIS has hosted an APAC tournament, but from now on we will host 2 per year. There were about 100 girls from international schools all over China and the Phillipines who came to Korea. They stayed with TCIS families, which from what I've heard was a positive experience for all parties involved. The tournament itself was a lot of fun, too. It started with an opening ceremony and all the 8th, 9th, and 10th graders were invited. They had traditional Korean drumming, a pep band, singing, and more. To make it even better TCIS placed 1st after the round-robin play and ended up 2nd in the tournament! A lot of people came out to watch the championship game (complete with painted faces and even some painted chests. hehe). Our swim meet was really short this weekend, so we even made it back for the game. It was great!

Well, there is one week of swimming left. On Friday morning we will go to Seoul for a two-day KAIAC meet. It will be fun to spend the night with the team to end the season. Last week TCIS was hit hard with sickness and many of the girls got it. Hopefully they will regain strength, and I can whip them back into shape this week. :) The team was swimming so well at the last few meets so hopefully we can finish strong. A couple of the swimmers are in the running for some all-conference awards so that's exciting, too.

I am really starting to look forward to the end of the school year. It will be especially sad this year since many staff members and friends are leaving, but I'm so excited to go back to Iowa. I arrive on June 8th and will be there until the end of July. We only have 6 more weeks of teaching so I know it will be here before I know it!