Out with the old, in with the new

Gav and I are dog sitting, nothing compared to Pocus but Princess Lea will do! She is adorable and the most hyper little thing!

Today the dream team ventured out to Suncheon Bay. Thinking it would be a nice place for Lea to get some fresh air. 15 minutes in to our ride, as we were about to say "yogi-yo" I looked over to Gav holding Princess Lea and this god awful rumbling came from the depths of her stomach. Moments later, Gav and the entire back seat of the taxi were covered in poor Princess Lea's vomit. The driver was less then impressed, Gav tidied up and we were on our way.

Watching the last sunset of 2006 on Suncheon Bay ignited memories and reflection as if a dam had let lose. A year ago I was working what I thought of to be the perfect job for me, thinking I had finally found some direction in my life. And sure enough, that ended like a bad dream and I spent most of the year picking up the pieces and rebuilding, never thinking that at the top I would find myself ending the year in South Korea, at a large bay, surrounded by Koreans with flashes on their cameras that go off so often you mistake them for fire flies, with two people who I cant imagine my life without. Would I go back and change anything that happened this year, this certainly isn't a year that I will look back on as one of the best, but I wouldn't change a thing, it is how I got to where I am...and every day I realize more and more what a beautiful place it is.

I erected a funnel going up the ladder in my apart, doubting that I still had the funneling skills I once had in North Adams, I was a bit nervous. I still have it! Gavin funneled his first beer and Trevor proved that he can still party like a rock star. Although I have outgrown the mess that a funnel disposes, and it isnt like being in the basement of Blackinton, when a tip of the funnel and all of the foam disappears...nothing a towel cant fix.
We had spent Saturday wandering around Suncheon in search of the perfect party hats and found what we thought of to be them. Hats on, we headed to Juliannas and to our suprise, as Gav and I walked down the street we we were hit with the same stares we get on a daily basis, but the expressions were different. Instead of skepticism and the occasional snarl we got smiles, giggles and delight. A few hours later we realized that the hats we were wearing were the traditional hats of newlyweds! We had decieved the Koreans with our own stupidity. We counted down to midnight with the aid of a Microsoft office clock on a big screen and went on to sing a version of Auld Layne Sang, a version I have never heard...I think I expected the version from NHS. This is a new version for me, and one that will bring on the same Saldada that my High School Alma Mater does.

Happy New Year!

Saldada

I intended to have an early night last night, walking home this morning at 5:30 I realized that it just isn't possible. Trevor and I went to the Outback, arriving at 930, they close at 10 so no big deal right? We were not allowed salad before our meal, and when we placed our order we were told, no ribs, only steak or "fry things". Needless to say, we ate fries and chicken wings and left happy with our decision to dine in a western atmosphere for a change. We wandered around a bit and headed to Bek Sum Dong, Korean Speak for "Gav's house".
Woke up today to the hanging of Saddam Hussein- I cant get the news here nor can I find an English Newspaper so I am relying heavily on CNN.com these days! It is as if an era has ended. Being as unpolitical as I am, or as one could possibly be, I felt an overwhelming amount of emotions and a sense of closure, whether the closure came in the right form...it came. Today we went on an excursion for a funnel, a tube, and some decent New Years garb! We got it all and are fully prepared for tomorrow. I am feeling like I am back on Blackinton and I am a little nervous to see if I have been able to maintain my funneling skills after all these years! Sat and had a Margarita, in a proper glass only it was ALL tequila at this very upperclass- Larney as the South Africans put it, Bar.
ONLY IN KOREA: Upon standing at an intersection we hear a mans voice screaming in a way that sounds like a yelping monkey. Sure enough it was a man, on the back of his friends scooter, no helmet and not even properly sitting down but rather squatting! Madness I tell you, madness.
28 hours until 2007, last year I drank a bottle of skunked Dom well past midnight- lets start this year on a better foot..

Vendors

It is so cold here that I find myself leaving work without ever having taken my coat off. They don't use the conventional heating system that we use in the states. Most houses (aparts- standard houses are non-existent for the most part here in Korea), are equipped with ill insulated walls and floors, and the floors have hot water pipes running through them creating heat. Fortunately, I am on the second floor and the person below me has their heat cranked at all time, rising nicely into my apart!
I spent most of the day being head butted by one of my five year old students, "Chally" his teacher told me his name was, thankfully I have taught him how to properly spell it and have shared with him another letter in the English alphabet- "R".
ONLY IN KOREA: Vendors on the side of the road who look as if they have done one of two things: A- raided their wives closets and are selling the "good stuff" and B- the vendors who have the oddest variety of things to sell. The woman I passed this morning had the following on or around her 3 foot table: A men's suit, a track suit (the Korean tuxedo), two sizes of luggage, a pot, a Sterno- yes one?!, a ladle, 3 ties, 20 pairs of infant socks and a yellow plastic piggy bank. I stopped in amazement and thought to myself:
"Now if I was on my way to a really fancy gathering I would totally make use of the track suit- throwing on a tie with it to make it a "proper" tuxedo. I could grab the pot and make some of my famous kimchee, ladling it out of my Sterno lit pot proudly to all the guests asking them to kindly fill my plastic piggy bank with won for all of my hard work. I would give socks as gag gifts, because of course they are infants socks and they wouldn't fit any one in Korea- (they would in fact fit most everyone). I'll have to pass on the luggage because I really have no use for it!- sensible of me huh!"
And without buying a thing I continued on!

Headed off for a fabulous dinner with Trevor, I am really missing good restaurants- there are some here I am sure but not being a fan of Korean food puts a lot of restrictions on the places I go. We are going for BBQ Chicken or to the Outback- amazing that the worst restaurants in America have somehow franchised to Korea- why cant the Olive Garden open here?

Korea in a nutshell

I have, until now been completely opposed to blogging, however, the group email thing is getting old, as I am some of you will agree, and instead, here are my travels for you to read at your own leisure. I will try and keep up, however, as with anywhere, life becomes more of a routine and more mundane as the days go by. The exciting adventures become less and instead you spend more time with people you have come to call friends, which is what I have done. I have met wonderful people, with whom I have been experiencing Korea, and with whom I will have many more experiences in the months to come.


I will try and keep this updated with the randomness of Korea, the unreal things that happen here, I have actually convinced to boys in 7-11 that I am famous and have signed autographs for them. I have almost died more than a handful of times at the mercy of the half drunk taxi drivers in this country who view traffic lights as more of a suggestion: you should stop but nothing will happen if you don't or the light is red but go ahead and turn right. Police cars stopped at red lights with their lights on as if to say only "I am a Police Man, I am a Police Man".

I have also began to realize the large culture gap that exsists even between English speaking countries. Being the only American amongst a group of Englishmen and South Africans you come to realize that there are endless ways to say the same thing, that what may mean one thing in Flint means a totally different thing in Newburyport. I have begin picking up little pieces of their language without even noticing it, words like "reckon", "mate" and "fany"...dont worry, I am making sure they take a little piece of American English back home with them.

With Christmas over and the new year fast approaching I am ready for 2007, for once I have no resolutions, sure there are things I want to change and am by no means completely satisfied with myself, I am however content, in what I am doing, the direction I am trying to move in, my progress over the past year and the ambition I am once again digging up in myself. And so, why bog that down with a bunch of demands? Why start thinking about what I want to change when instead I can just keep making the slow progress I have been working on for the past three months!

Whats in store in the coming months....Gav and I take a Kross Korea KoRail Trip- The DMZ, Andong, Pohang, Samson, Osan, Seoul and many more hidden treasures in Korea