Hobbitses!

****NOTE: This post was originally written up on Monday. I'd read 3 chapters of "The Hobbit" at that time. I finished the book on Wednesday without breaking a sweat. It's waaaay smaller than I remembered! I have no clue how they're going to stretch it out over 3 movies...*****


It's December, folks, and we all know what that means:

Snow.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

MORE snow.

The snow wars between students were vicious!

Final exams for my students.

This is what happens when I give "free study" time to my 8th graders :)

Aaaaand, most importantly...


"The Hobbit: Part 1" comes out in theaters!

My friend Mary (check out her fabulous baking blog HERE) recently posted a Hobbit Challenge on her other blog (!blog), and I'm taking her up on it! I lucked out and found a copy of the Hobbit at the community center library downtown, so I'm speeding through it, hopefully in time for our Friday night date with 2 other couples.

Mary! It's the exact same copy... We both just read the GREATEST FANTASY EPIC OF OUR TIME.

UPDATE: Tonight's the night! There is a large group of foreigners poised to descend upon the movie theaters in Gwangju this evening for the beginning of another adventure in Middle Earth. It may not be the 48 frames-per-second version, and it probably won't have Smaug in it, AND I may have a cold today, but I'm still bouncing in my seat with impatience for this evening. See you at the theater...

Wednesdays.

On our Wednesdays, Adam and I make free to indulge our every whims. We eat out for every meal. We sleep in as late as our growling tummies will allow. We don't do anything we don't feel like doing. We stay as far away from the hostel as possible. We explore New Orleans. We spend hours at coffee shops and bookstores just browsing books or the web or writing or reading. We ride our scooter all around town, looking as cool as can be. We go to museums or events or famous spots in the city. We get beignets from Cafe du Monde. We go to movies. We go shopping.
We relax.

We recently watched a gorgeous movie called "The Rabbit Hole" at an even more gorgeous theatre. In the middle of downtown New Orleans, on Canal street, there is a super fancy and expensive shopping mall. There is a movie theater in this mall that wins the award for swankiest movie theater. Not only are the seats enormous and cushy and adjustable, but the theater is 18+ because if has in-seat dining and alcohol and meals can be served at any point during your cinematic experience. And this ain't popcorn and sodas (though, they have that too) - we're talking gourmet cheese plates, and handcrafted, fresh pizzas, and caviar pie and all kinds of other delicacies.

We sank back into the high-backed leather seats, kicked off our shoes and ordered whatever we liked by pressing the call buttons on our seats' armrests (which also had extend-able table surfaces). The pre-movie show wasn't garish commercials or loud advertisements: they played yoga-studio trickling music while streaming peaceful and beautiful footage of nature.

 I feel like these people taught Adam and I some lessons in the art of indulgence and relaxation.

Nice, no?

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