Soon to be....

***Highlight of the week....witnessing a father on his scooter with his son between his legs in front of him, his wife sitting behind him and in his arms...a new born baby....madness!

So 3 weeks or so in and I am almost fully adjusted. Still no phone, cable or internet but I am realizing I really dont need them...crosswords, soju, reading.... all that h with the amazing amount of spare time I seem to have in my days at school.

sitting, where I have sat since 9am, it's Monday and it is now 11:25... a single class is yet to show up!!! One of my co-teachers just came in and said, "oh, no second period". I said well first period did not come either. He looked perplexed, said ok, turned and left. Although having this time is nice, gives me time to catch up...I would have loved to sleep for a few more hours.

My weeks are easy, 3 schools, five days, 20 hours of teaching and 2 hours of volleyball and soju drinking on Wednesdays. Here they drink at school, the teachers that is, can you imagine the uproar if all of the teachers gathered in the NHS gym at 2pm for a game of volleyball, a few budlights, a few shots of jager and a pizza. It still amazes me the freedom their culture gives them to enjoy life in a different way then we do in the states. They are slowly catching on the ways of western life that create a more structured environment, suing people for mindless reasons, changing school programs, however, still their mindsets often revolve around being with friends and family and having fun.

I am teaching 6th grade in my school for the next 4 weeks, the same lesson, 7 times in a row, then on to the next one 7 times in a row again. It could be work for a robot, but, it can be fun if you are willign to put the time in and come up with good activities for the children.

This weekend Daniel and I headed to Yesou with some friends, such a beautiful beach! The weather went from rain rain rain (it rained consistently from 8/24-9/9...)to 90!!
While I was home the battery in our 1988 Hyandi also died. 75,000 won later it is runnign better than ever...minus a horn. The other day on our way back from the market the horn somehow got stuck on and remained so for 20 minutes. Needless to say, all pedestrians around us were annoyed and a kind gentleman came and disconnected it for us. Now....I am hornless...and have resorted to using my middle finger to show anger. Here in the land of few rules there are many ignorant, careless and eratic driverers, with no horn to tell them they are in the wrong, we now just scream out the window. They are often very suprised by this!

My apartment is much nicer this year, 3 good size rooms, a normal bathroom, galley kitchen and a nice veranda!!! The downside to living in Shidae- PAKAYBOOLAYS...COCKROACHS! I hate them! Each time I see one I instantaniously feel the urge to vomit. We have also learned that when you leave the dogs food out you get ants. Suppodsly ants and cockroaches dont coexsist in the same apartment, mine is the exception. And so, the race begns to keep an extra clean house!!!

Pictures coming soon....
x

beating pavement on the b side

i have been back in korea for a little over a week and i think the reality is finally setteling in. i thought this time around it would be easier with the absence of the unknown..no...its a little harder, there were no expectations before and now there are so many. everything was new and exciting and now it is my norm. on the flip side i am comfortable with me, my place in this socity and my wonderful new job...started today (a hungover saturday) by being introduced to the entire school via a broadcast into each room. now, i sit in the computer lab, on a beat up computer (hence the lack of proper punctuation) waiting for noon!

amazing how my life has sorted itself out, come full circle, how i stumbled upon an amazing man when it was the last thing i was looking for and now, my fiance. i have a wonderful family and a chance to experience anything i can! this year nothing is to be taken for granted!

i will keep better time with this now, alot more free time to write...maybe the book will really be done before I leave....

x

back where it all began....

In the states that is. I though the adjustment would be both harder and easier then it has been. Granted, it isnt like I have had to adjust to a new job as I am barely working. I am happy I made it back after my 49 hour journey just in time for Cory and Ambers wedding, it was so good to see everyone I had forgotten how much I had missed them!!!!

It is just adjusting to the mass chaos around me. I thought I would have far more anxity about the life I left behind however it is all so insignificant now. I am happy, genuinly happy for the first time that I can remember.

I think I have wasted most of the past two weeks waiting for Daniel to arrive...it will be a long month after he leaves.

I am beginning to prepare for next year, getting my ideas sorted and my plans more set! I certainly feel like my life is in a much better place this time around in so many ways!! I dont feel like I must get out of here, it is more I am enjoying my time and getting to see people I missed over the past year.

The next three weeks are sure to be a new adventure, as interesting and exciting as the past nine months in Korea. Daniel and I will venture up to Nova Scotia, The Lost River, Polar Caves, Mt. Jefferson, New York, Boston, CT and maybe Louisiana. Funny, I wont be too good of a tour guide as it will be my first time at most of these places. Then it is off to wedding time!!! It is so wonderful to be back home with my family, I cant believe that when I leave it will be another year befor I see them again!

a day at the beach

The weather here is getting progressively nicer, it is as if winter never happened. I am so used to the terribly winters of New England that the mildness of winter here has spoiled me and in my mind it has all just merged into summer.
The 50,000 won I spent on this 1988 Hyundai Excel has turned out to be a great investment. The things you talk about doing but can never get yourself around to doing on a hungover Saturday afternoon are now easier to actually jump on and get done. After weeks of talking about getting out of town and going to a deserted beach Daniel I headed to Yesou yesterday afternoon. A quiet seaside town that reminds me of Rye, NH, windy roads going up the rocky coast. In the middle of these winding roads is Mogwasa (spelling) beach. A little cove that has a great Yaegwon with rooms that you can rent for 30,000. We sat on the beach all day, built a fire and for a little while felt as if we we rent in Korea...its amazing how a change of scenery can remove you from your own reality.
I have seen some very random things this week out and around Korea. An old Ajoshi, Korean for elderly man, heavily intoxicated, attempting to ride his bike down a main road, failing each time. As it turns out his handle bars were backwards! Fast forward to the next day and as I am driving down what is a small highways comparable with Rt. 1 in Portsmouth, there is a Agima, Korean for elderly woman, being pushed in a wheel chair by her Agima sidekick down the middle yellow line of the road...madness!!!
6 weeks to go....

7 fridays to go

It is official I'm coming home...7 weeks from today, and as scary as it all seems right now, I am beginning to look very forward to it. I'm looking forward to seeing my family, I have had all these things around me sparking memories and thoughts of them more so lately then in the seven months since I left, someones handwriting that looks so much like my moms I swore she was in my classroom and had my self painfully convinced she had flown over to visit only to realize i was so very wrong. A Harley sitting on the side of the road that looked so oddly out of place yet I could hear my dad saying "the only real bike, i sold mine when we had you to put dormers on the house". And yesterday, in the middle of Home Plus there was a wedding dress, not a pretty one, but one all the same which sparked this insane desire to get home and start planning Lindseys wedding with her. To be the sister of the bride, to party all night with her in my fancy little dress. It will be a fun filled two months!!!
And on the other side...getting ready to return to my life here. I have my interview for next year on Sunday and am beginning to sort through my things and get ready for the long journey home. Leaving my car, well 1/2 my car...the other 1/2 has no license so surely he will have to find someone to drive it for him while I am away. It is scary to wonder what my life will be when I return. Will the relationships I have slowly built still exist?
My mind is in a funny place today, as close as I remain to those I have dated it has never been something that messes with my head or makes me hold on to them or long to be with them. I have this very healthy ability to look forward, to get to a certain point and realize that although the relationship didn't work I spent a part of my life with this person and still want them in my life. On the other end of it all are the ones which are not worth salvaging and I have become aware of how to realize this. I am returning to something I in a sense ran from but i am in a good place with it. Although it will take some adjusting, I dint think the void I imagined being there will be felt at all.
Off to say goodbye to some friends, they are all moving out and moving in at this point, I guess that's what life is all about after all!

Ladies Night....

Being deprived of contact with females it seems since being in Korea, I have found my self for the most part surrounded by men, which in some ways is good, it seems less drama filled and when single you don't have to worry about liking the same boy as your friend. However, it also has it downsides, I am used to having many friends, girl friends in which to confide, how do you can you call even your closest male friend and tell him what was said, good or bad, between you and the guy you may be dating. There are just certain things only a female can relate to. I have met many great women here and so, tonight I am having ladies night at my place. I have cooked all of my favorite appetizers and am ready for a fun night!!! Funnel and tequilla on hand!
I also became witness to the Korean version of jumping jacks today...an interesting concept that i am not to sure I will be partaking in any time soon, it looks more like a seizure than anything else. children jumping and thrusting their pelvis's and grunting in Korean, and this was only two of them, i can only imagine what an entire class full of them must look like. It was these same students who then chose to attack me, trying to jam their fingers in my bum and punching a kicking me...nothing beats a kindergarten class the moment you walk in to work.
So I am off, the ladies should be here soon.

April Fools.........A new kind of pollen

Being used to the New England seasonal changes and craziness Mother Nature hurls at us on a yearly basis, from Indian Summers to Blizzards and Hurricanes, I figured that I could handle the slight changes that the Korean climate offers. I have been sick twice since I have been here, both times far worse then any cold or flu I have had in the states. Over the past week or so I have had allergy like symptoms, a stuffy nose, mind you I have gone years with out a stuffy nose, and a cough that has gotten worse (not from smoking as I have been doing that for years...dont ask....a kind of cough that makes me feel like I have been working in a chemical plant.)
Today, as we walked around Suncheon we noticed that most cars were covered in this yellow polleny substance, and the smog/fog was thick and became more thick as the day progressed. All of my questions have been answered......
from yahoo:
South Korea on Sunday issued a nationwide warning against yellow dust blowing in from China and Mongolia, advising citizens to stay indoors to avoid the choking mix of sand and pollutants." South Korea on Sunday issued a nationwide warning against yellow dust blowing in from China and Mongolia, advising citizens to stay indoors to avoid the choking mix of sand and pollutants.

Officials at the Korea Meteorological Administration said the dust had blanketed much of the country on Sunday, with visibility in the capital Seoul at just three kilometres (two miles)Yellow dust -- fine sand from Mongolia's Gobi Desert which sometimes includes toxic chemical smog emitted by Chinese factories -- usually hits South Korea in the spring. It can cause respiratory disorders.

Fabulous......so now not only do i have to worry about contracting a cold sore each time the wind blows, cold sores or herpes as we know them are a way of life here, they are part of the culture, there is no fear of spreading them. I now have to worry about the toxins I am in from Mongolia and have been urged to purchase a stylish face mask, also an item of fashion that Koren people of all ages don on a daily basis. I think this is grounds for calling in sick...of course I would spend the day enjoying the breathtaking cherry blossoms, but I would wear my Chanel face mask!