Almost Spring!

More Philippines pictures because still bad picture weather here and because I really like this collage that Vicky made :)

I realize for my readers in the southern US, that my title is inaccurate.  For all of you, Spring is already here and in full swing.  For those of us in colder climates though, it's just beginning.  And about time too, since with the return of Spring comes the ability to go outdoors with less than 3 layers of clothes!  We might actually start doing things again soon!

I've said it before and I'll say it again, a beach island is very VERY boring in winter.  It's thanks to this that I see a small silver lining in the last week Vicky and I spent partially sick (I say partially sick because we were sick enough that we probably should have stayed home for a few days but with only 3 sick days per year, we ended up working 4/5 of the week).  Our half-sick week kept us in a low energy state so we weren't going crazy anticipating Spring and getting out of the house again.

The Coral Cay main dining hall

Spring here is announced by the return of the cherry blossoms all over the island.  The people of Jeju say the Japanese took their original cherry blossom trees from here before giving some to Washington DC (but given regional rivalry, no one knows if this is true).  Whether the trees came from Korea or Japan, they are beginning to bloom and are becoming more gorgeous by the minute.  Next weekend is the official cherry blossom festival.  Vicky and I can't wait to go for walks in the park nearby under them and hopefully take some pretty pictures for you to see.

Since we haven't been able to go out much due to sickness and weather, we've been doing tons of research. We've been looking at what specific cities to visit in Europe while we're there, what order to see them in, how to get from one to the next as cheaply and comfortably as possible, etc.  So far we've mostly settled on our first four places as the Swiss Alps, Munich (and Neuschwanstein), Prague and Paris.  From there ...  :)

We've also looked at where to live after Korea, what we'll do for work, what we'll do while we're home and such.  We're working hard now so we don't have to waste beautiful days sitting indoors researching!

Siquijor sure knows how to do a sunset!

And as that should be plenty enough for one update, I leave you with a funny story from school earlier this week.

I was sitting in my classroom when some new 6th graders came in to introduce themselves. Most said "Hi" but one asked "Do you want to fight?!?". The one student there who already knew me then turned and explained in rapid fire Korean how I picked up the last student who challenged me to fight and shook him upside-down until he apologized.

The new student then turned back to me, bowed and said "sorry" while backing away.  I smiled.

The Little Mermaid watching for her prince in front of the Danish Lagoon