Pohang is getting a lot of snow as I write this.  Today we had a snow day (woot, woot) and the snow has come down steadily all day, which causes me to hope for another tomorrow.  But nothing is certain here.  I really like the snow.  I think pretty much all the schools in Pohang had a snow day today because this might be the most snow they've had in hundreds of years.  But this meant that there were children outside playing.  And I liked to see that.
  I've spent my snow day being altogether very lazy.  I took a nice nap this morning, and this afternoon Natasha and I have just been watching The Lord of the Rings, which I'd say, though lazy, is a good way to spend ones time.
  Recently, I've been thinking a little about what I will do after my contract expires in August.  In my head my options are: 1. renew my contract for another six months or a year; 2. find a new job somewhere else abroad. (I really loved Vietnam, or the newest idea is to teach in France.  I think I'd love this and now Alisa has decided that we should do it together - which would be pretty sweet I think - though we shouldn't get our hopes up - we haven't researched it yet); or 3. come home to North America.  At this point I'm not really leaning towards any of these options in particular, except for France (but I shouldn't get my hopes up).  So I'll have to give this more thought.  And if you have any wisdom on the matter, please send it my way.
  On another note, the next two weeks will be the last time that I have with my kindergarten class.  The Korean school year ends after February.  This has snuck up on me and I'm sad about it.  I think a few of my students will take Elementary classes at Poly, so I'll see them still, but many of them I'm afraid I won't see again.  I've come to really love this class and I will miss them.
  Furthermore, I've discovered another difference between Korean and North American cultures - having to do with raising children again.  What I find is that children in Korea are somewhat more independent than children in North America.  I say this because I find children here are less whiny.  Play time at Poly school is a rambunctious and loud time where our children, aged 3 to 6, have a chance to move finally and let out some steam after 4o minutes in a chair.  So our students play hard.  But what I find very little of is children coming to their teachers complaining about another student or even that they got a little bit hurt.  They seem to know that when they play that way, they also suffer the consequences.  Though this sounds like a good thing - that Korean children are more mature (which could be true in some instances) - I think it also might be due to their being raised in a much stricter environment where they aren't given an audience to complain to.  Different.
 I'm going to end this blog with an awesome quote from Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
Thank you for reading.
Michael.

"It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines, it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. Because they were holding on to something." "What are we holding on to Sam?" "That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it's worth fighting for."
-Sam (J.R.R Tolkien)