Well I am back in Korea after a wonderful time home with the family and a few friends. It was a great time of relaxation and time with my family. It was a bit of an adjustment coming back to the Korean heat, but it just broke two days ago and has been rainy with highs in the 70's: sweatshirt weather. I can't describe it, its sooo nice. Yesterday Joy and I were able to go to one of my old (her current) student's piano/violin recitals. It happened to be the same music school for several of my students. So I was able to witness Korean musical training. It is safe to say I was at a near to world class performance. It is unbelievable to see how quickly these kids learn. The student I went to see was an 8 year old girl and she was performing the first movement of Vivaldi's Concerto in a-minor on the violin...not a short piece by all reasonable judgments. This after a year and a half of lessons. After the recital we went out to dinner with her family. Sarah was too shy much to me, but I did get to talk to her 3 yr old brother as he ran through the restaurant.

Tomorrow will be the first day of my new schedule. We are doing a switch of afternoon classes for the last half of the year, and this means that I will not be working so late. A welcome shift. We also have a new teachers room on the 6th floor which is very nice. We have a little courtyard outside, which is the roof. Hopefully the transition to new classes will go smoothly. But I cannot express the relief shorter hours will be. Thats the latest news from Korea. I am also on the injured reserve. I went to the doctor to check out some hip pain I've been having for the past few months. I was able to get an x-ray for $40. It seems that I have an area of higher bone density caused by stress from overuse/poor posture, so I will be out for this soccer season and any possible racing opportunities. Not the best news, but at least I know what I need to do now.