Pre-Korea ~ September ~ October ~ November  December ~ January ~ CHINA ~ February

* There might be some issue with Internet Explorer and "ActiveX controls" whatever that is. Get Firefox. It's better. *China: Week Two's coming. I promise.

August 14th, 2008 I'm so tired, but I think I should get in one more blog before I leave for India. It still doesn't feel like I'm leaving. This just sort of sprung up on me. I leave in less than six hours, though. And no, I'm not done packing. I've folded the clothes that may be used for the trip, though. That's a start. I've also got my batteries charging, you know, the stuff that takes longer than a half-hour to do. Strangely, though, I'm mostly thinking of when I get back. I come back on the 25th and then I only have about two weeks before I leave! That's crazy! I really don't want to go. It's really hitting me and I'm starting to panic a bit. Well, not panic, but I've just been realizing how much I like it here. No, it's not even that. It's just so normal. I have a life here now and I'm dropping it all and going back home. Leaving home was different. I was coming back after a year. Leaving Korea, I'm not sure. I want to come back, but I really don't know what will happen. Oh well. We'll see what happens when it does. I've heard that it only takes a few days for everything to adjust back to normal when people overseas return home. Maybe I'll come back and find that I like my 미국 (American) life better. Anyway, I have to pack. Two weekends ago I went to the East coast and went rafting (or "lefting") with a bunch of Koreans. On the river, there were so many people, but I was the only foreigner there. It started to rain while we were out there, but we were already wet, and it was strangely relaxing to just get soaked while on a boat, traveling down through the Eastern mountains. That night we slept outside under  a mosquito net at my Korean friend's friend's country home. We had an outdoor (Korean) BBQ, which was lots of meat, grilled and eaten with delicious 쌈장 (a sauce) and lettuce, but instead of a big grill like in America, picture a little mat with everyone sitting cross-legged around dozens of little plates, using chopsticks. I looked around as we were eating and realized how normal everything had become. Something like that (the entire weekend, actually) would have gotten me so excited back in January, when local Korean culture was still really interesting and new, but now I take it for granted. I'm really going to miss Korean-style BBQ when I go back home... Last weekend I visited another country-home about two hours outside Seoul. We had another outdoor BBQ and slept in a trailer-type thing. There were giant, giant bugs. Seriously, I noticed this back in Deok Jeok Do. There are big bugs in Korea. I don't think we have bugs like this back in Chicago. I let my rabbit go. He's gone now, frolicking out in the forest... or... er... dead. Okay, but seriously, before you get all mad, let me tell you that I haven't seen Tokki this happy since I got him, back in September. It was doing backflips of happiness just jumping around. And when it comes down to it... it's really dumb. My sister had a good point: it's probably dumb enough that it won't realize that it's dying. It will be very happy for the few days it's alive, then have a quick, painless death if it comes across any big animal or... hungry country-dwelling Korean. Here's a link to the pictures... http://picasaweb.google.com/akemann/August14th I really know how to waste time. I leave in four hours and I still am no further along packing than I was when I started writing this. I'm going to get some sleep. Wish me luck!

August 7th, 2008 I hear there's the first Bear's game tonight. That's exciting. Too bad I can't see it... So, I tried updating this on the 29th, in a desperate attempt to get it finished before the month's close. However, I didn't finish, due to all the pictures I've acclimated and the complicated process it is just to post them. So... I searched a bit for an easy program on the web I could upload and comment on. I tried blogspot.com, but it didn't really have what I wanted with pictures, so I ended up settling with picasa, which is actually connected to blogspot.com. So hopefully it works. I'll just post a link on the few remaining posts I have left to the picasa page, where you can view pictures, my comments on them, as well as write your own comments, if need be. I'm not sure why I didn't do this back in September. So... any updates from last week? Actually, yeah. Have I even mentioned India? I'm going to India and Hong Kong next Thursday. Finally. It was a really complicated process to get the VISA, one of the worst I've seen, actually, as far as VISAs go. Seriously, the amount of stuff they wanted from me, including money, added onto sticky hours and not answering their phone was really irritating. I ended up making two trips into Seoul, getting angry and near-yelling at a few people, as well as another trip next week, as well as getting out of work early on three days, which isn't easy at my school. I hope I get it. The VISA should be ready literally the day before I leave. So... if it's late I can't go. That will be irritating when it happens. I've decided to drop optimism  because it's less disappointing. But India! It looks awesome. Right now I have a pseudo-plan, going to four different cities (plus Hong Kong), including the Taj Mahal and a desert trip. I hope it works. I'm going to be crammed for time, though. Hopefully I learned from my China trip, though, and I'll be more prepared with money and tickets and reservations. We'll see. I think that's just about it. I'm letting my rabbit go this weekend. That will be really sad. My friend says he knows a nice mountain about two hours outside the city where it will be happy and free before it gets eaten. Aww... Tokki. I'll make sure to take a few pictures before I do so. Oh, here's the link to the pictures : http://picasaweb.google.com/akemann/JuneJuly2008 oh... I just found out that you can't comment on pictures unless you sign up. If you have  a google account (including gmail) you can sign in with the same username and password. Try it out.

July 29th, 2008 Wow. So a lot has happened in the last month and a half. Let's see... I went to Gangneung (강릉) on the East Coast, which is a beautiful beach-town with really nice mountains that is strangely not attached to Seoul by train. Just driving around and looking at the scenery out there is really nice. The next week I stayed in Seoul, visiting the Han River Park again to bike ride. That was the same place with the cherry blossoms during the Spring. Now it's all green. The next day I saw a palace and a temple during the afternoon, trying to catch up on the necessary "Seoul Sightseeing" that I've been putting off for ten months, then that night I went to the South Korea - North Korea soccer game, which surprisingly wasn't as exciting as I was expecting. For two nations who are still technically at war, there was a lot of respect. They even played the North Korean national anthem before the game started. Isn't that strange? I mean... can you imagine playing Nazi Germany's national anthem in America during World War II? This is a completely different situation, but still... I thought it was odd and no one else seemed to think so. The next weekend was really depressing. I broke up with a girl I'd been seeing and got into a fight with my best friend and such... ended up sleeping in a gutter in Seoul because I had no money. Yeah... that wasn't fun. But it makes a good story! Next was the Fourth of July, which wasn't too much fun. I met with some people, but most of them were from England, Canada, or New Zealand. They didn't really get into it. After that was Mudfest!! It's this big festival about two hours away where people from all over the country (mostly foreigners) gather and slather mud all over themselves and go a little crazy. They had this big pit of "mud wrestling" with probably about thirty people all going nuts inside. It was a complete free-for-all. I jumped in and was immediately clothes-lined by two guys I didn't know. Really fun, but after I'd get knocked over it was kind of awkward because I wasn't sure if we should laugh about it or get into a fight. Next weekend was a quiet week in Seoul. We were finishing up the school year. Oh man, I hate my school so much. I'm so tired of it, but I'll try to keep my venting to a minimum. Then this last week I went to Deok Jeok Island (덕적도) with some friends. It's the rainy season in Korea right now and it was scheduled to thunderstorm all weekend, but it wasn't that bad. In fact, Sunday it was beautiful. The sky was so blue and clear, but on the horizon we could see a dense fog that covered the other islands. It was really cool. I have some pictures.

June 13th, 2008 Just now, for the first time, I met my neighbor. I've never seen them, for the past six months or so, we've narrowly missed each other every day. I didn't know if it was a boy or a girl or how many of them or anything. There's no peepholes in our doors, either, so it's not like we could really intentionally avoid each other. Well it's a girl. She heard me come home and knocked on my door. It turns out she wanted my old fridge, which has been sitting out in the hall since I bought my new one in January/February. I guess she'd asked the landlord's wife if she could switch it, and they said it was mine and it was up to me. I'm not sure if that's the case because the school bought it, but she came to ask me about it. I'm telling you this because our conversation was completely in Korean. Mine was extremely bad Korean, but I understood enough crucial words to be able to grasp what she was saying. Oops, there's a little dust on my shoulder. Let me brush it off. So I really want to go home. That's the big news lately. I've gotten a little depressed about it. Well, let me explain. I think I'm just going through a really awkward phase right now. My whole family flew home this week, so everyone's at home. If you don't know, summers in Chicago/Wisconsin are beautiful. I miss water so much. I miss sunlight. I miss family and friends. However, I also am still enjoying Korea. I like having a job and paycheck. I like having my own apartment. I like having friends and things to do. I like having a spider web- subway system at my fingertips. I'm not ready to pack up and start fresh again. I don't want to go home in September after everyone has left and I'll have no job and live with my parents. So that's depressing too. The solution, of course, would have been to visit home about mid-way through the trip. I even had the opportunity, way back, to do that. I didn't because I had some strange commitment to stay out here for a year, like it was going to be a big, crazy adventure until the end. Well, the adventure wears off after about eight months. Now it's life. There's not much special about it. I rarely feel like I'm in a foreign country. Everything has become so normal. Now, simple American concepts that are stapled into the culture I grew up in seem foreign. Chopsticks. How often do you come across chopsticks in America? If I remember correctly, not very often, even at Chinese restaurants! How is that possible? I remember having to ask for chopsticks at a Chinese place. Why would you have to ask for something like that? I'm really curious how that works. Bread. In America, there's bread everywhere. I remember feeling like some places were cheap when they only had crackers. Like, you know how some places, they just bring by a basket full of rolls? That's awesome! Personal Space. Alright, actually after last night I haven't been too worried about this one. My walls of personal space with Koreans has pretty much all but disappeared. I realized this when I was stretching the other day at Taekwondo, and my helper straddled my back, knees on my thighs and crotch right into my back. We bobbed a bit as he pushed my back down further and then he scooted up so his crotch was right against my neck. That was when I realized that my wall was gone. While it was awkward enough for that realization to take place, part of me didn't care. So I was really nervous I was going to come back to America and have problems. But last night I went to the foreigner taekwondo class and they had us do these massages afterwards. One of my foreigner guy friends had to massage my back, and I'm pleased to say that I couldn't really relax and it was very uncomfortable. So I guess with Koreans it's gone, but with foreigners it'll build itself right back up again. Just like seabiscuit. That reminds me. I bought a purse. It really was an accident. This was awhile ago, I think I was just too ashamed to put it on here. I was with my Korean friends and I needed a new bag. We looked at stuff and I wanted to get a black one. My Korean friend told me to get a brown one because it was more casual. So we're looking at some, then finally part of my brain caught on. They were purses! I immediately tried to back down, but all the Korean guys there said they weren't. So, biting my lip, I bought it and actually liked it a lot. The next week I brought it to taekwondo and the first thing another one of my friends said is, "Nice purse." So, I was right. It was a purse. It's a gigantic, soccer-mom purse. You know, one of those that fits everything inside?  I was sort of irritated and depressed, not really sure how I could have bought something like that. Then on the bus ride home, I saw three other men with purses almost exactly like mine. In Korean culture, their perfectly normal. I've just been here so long that I don't really notice stuff like that anymore.                                  Okay, I think I've typed enough. I'm going to try to get at least one entry every month from now on. It's strange. Because I'm so used to everything out here now, writing in this seems more like a diary than a blog. I think, why would anyone want to know about that? But maybe it's interesting. I don't even know anymore. My whole perception of anything American and normal is so skewed right now. I'm going to have an interesting first week when I go home. Here's a bunch of pictures: Myeongdong - 명동 is one of the trendy places in Seoul. I've been there twice. It's kind of neat... but it's sort of just like a big outdoor mall. Festival - There was a big festival in Bupyeong. I'm not sure why, but they closed off a really big street and had lots of performances and dances and food. Pig - Some pig being cooked on the side of the street. Flags - There were a few parades every so often at the festival. Food - So... some of the food at the festival wasn't very... appetizing. Fireworks - What's a good festival without some fireworks? Pusan - I went to 부산 last weekend. It's the second biggest city in Korea and it's really famous for its beaches. I'm surprised it took me so long to get down there. Haeundae - The famous beach. The Koreans were glad that it wasn't crowded  that day. Unite - This was nice. Very touching. Sculpture - There was a sandcastle competition on the beach that weekend. Buildings - I took this out my friend's window. Shoulders - No walls. I was actually really irritated when he did this, but I guess the picture turned out pretty good. Temple - There was a beautiful temple on the coast. What a great concept. It was awesome. We climbed on the rocks near the water and in all the cracks there were mounds of wax from years and years of lighting candles out there. really neat. Here's a video of us eating live octopus in Pusan. There's a few more videos if you want to stalk me on you tube for a second. Bon Appetite!

May 24th, 2008 So I've been trying to free up my schedule a bit, trying to make that a priority. It's good, but now I'm sitting at my apartment with nothing to do... Of course, there is lots that I could do here. My apartment is an adequate mess. The rabbit needs food and for me to clean its litter box thing. I was so angry at it the other day. It tried to mate with my hand! It was acting really strange for about two days. It was really active, even though it had food and water. So I took it out and it kept on running from the shelter of my floor-mirror and back to me. I reached my hand down to pat it and it mounted my wrist and started thrusting! I didn't let it out for awhile after that. School's going well. The nice thing about working for the government, is there are special days all the time. This month, every week we've either had a day off or special day where we get out early or something. Very nice. I've been teaching this afterschool class I really don't like. It's only about nine kids and only about seven come. That sounds fine, but they're kind of nuts and they know me well-enough that they don't really respect me as a teacher anymore. On top of that they all hate the class concept, which is an English play, or better versed, an English movie (Don't ask me why they signed up for it). I film them saying a little script I write that ties in to a lesson they'll do in a month or so in class. It sounds nice, but it's not very exciting for them, and most of them speak really poor English. Like, even repeating directly what I say while recording is inaudible. So they get bored and crazy, and there's one boy all the girls don't like, but he doesn't care, but the girls write notes all the time about it... yeah, anyway, it's ridiculous. It's pretty much the last thing I want to be doing twice a week after a regular full-days worth of work. I get paid a little extra, but because there's so few students, its not much at all. So I talked to my co-teacher about a month ago about it, and several forms and meetings and confused phone calls later, my next class is starting soon. They really didn't want me to drop it (I'm not sure why for only seven students), so I just made a minimum amount of students I need, which is twelve. Wish me luck. The weather is hot! It's going to be really interesting when it gets hotter. I hate air conditioning, but if it's May and this warm already, I'm not sure what I'll do. I'm going to need to buy some different, cooler clothes for sure. I accidentally left my camera in my friend's car for a few weeks, so there's not a lot of pictures. I went to my Korean friend's (광호's) hometown near Daejeon I think two weekends ago. It was really cool. We had been talked about it before, and I mentioned that I wanted to see his old house. That kind of stuff really interests me, especially because he mentioned it was traditional. He sounded embarrassed by it, though. He said he had his own bedroom but the house was really small, and I think I did show him a picture of my gigantic house back in the states. He mentioned that his parents used to be really poor. In the seventies, they used to have one meal of rice a day. I was expecting a little wooden shack. Anyway, he owns a mountain. He didn't tell me about that little detail. He lived on this little vineyard in a valley pretty much in the middle of nowhere. There are beautiful green mountains and a really friendly little community he lives in. There's a man-made lake, created to water the fields during drought. It was really nice, and it was really cool to see the country side a little more up-close and personal than just out the window of a bus. And the air was really nice, something I'm not used to anymore. There's not a lot of pictures, but I have a few.                  1st* This is around his hometown, just off the highway. The whole area was really pretty. This picture doesn't really do it justice, because we were moving so fast and trees kept getting in the way. 2nd* This is his vineyard. They grow grapes for a wine factory nearby. 3rd* Forgot about this... I got a lot of flowers for "Teachers Day," something that is taken much more seriously here than it is in the states. I feel very... flattered, but it's sort of ridiculous. Men don't usually get flowers in America, and I'm not sure what to do with them. Currently, they are rotting on my desk and on the floor. I need to clean my apartment. That just reminded me, seeing the roses. I guess Incheon's city flower is the rose? I read that somewhere once, and now I see why. All over the city, there are rose bushes blooming everywhere. I didn't know roses could be so plentiful. During my twenty-minute ride to taekwondo, there are bushes all over that line the sidewalks. I just got my camera back, so I'll try to remember to take a few pictures to show.

May 15th, 2008 I've been very busy, lately. Really, it's starting to get irritating. You know how when you move to a new place, you start out with a blank schedule? The first semester at college and pretty much every summer when I came home from college would be blank for the first month. Then, gradually, one starts meeting more people, making more friends, adding commitments, joining organizations, piling up more work, and the schedule doesn't take long to completely pack up. I miss Fall. I miss being bored. I miss having time at work to sit lazily on the computer. I miss not having a lot of extra classes, even though I wasn't making as much money. But at the same time, it's been pretty fun lately, too. Time has been going by so fast. There's a reason I'm so busy. I hardly ever spend time at home anymore. If I have a chunk of spare time bigger than two hours, I usually use it to go to the market or Seoul or something. Whenever I am home, pretty much the last thing I want to do is sit down and piece together the blog. That's why it's been a month since my last entry. Sorry about that. Really, a good idea for anyone who's considering making a blog: make it easy and quick to update. And make sure you can update it from anywhere. So what have I been up to? I don't even know. Oh yeah, I went to Japan. It was fun and really interesting to see. There's lots of pictures from that, but I'm not going to promise that I'm going to put them up here, because, like China, I probably won't ever actually do it. Hopefully I'll make an entry about it, though. What else? I compiled some pictures about two weeks ago, but I don't remember what they are. Let's take a look. Daejeon - I think that's how you spell it. It's a really big city about two hours South of Seoul. This is the main street. Chingu - The Daejeon gang. Underground - These underground malls are pretty common in Korea. I just thought I should get some more pictures of normal stuff to put up on here. Miami - Random UM shirt being displayed. Tattoo - Yeah, that's a butt. Is that weird? Just in case you want your butt to look like this one here, you can do it at that tattoo parlor. Toilet - So... this toilet was actually a faucet, with a knob. I don't think I've ever seen that before. Paint - I painted some hands for fun. We were talking about the 4th of July and Halloween and I mentioned that facepainting is an activity that American children enjoy. Check it out. I'm pretty good at it, too. I guess we're all good at something... Rabbit - Me and my rabbit are on good terms, now. I brought it to school... and chaos ensued. I hope I remember to elaborate on that later. Parents - My "Parents" class this year is awesome. It's a really good group. I really lucked out and am having a lot of fun teaching them. Part of it might be the thrill of having students who actually want to learn... Evolution - My rabbit got it's head stuck in the new cage I made for it. It's really dumb. It kept on trying to squeeze through it instead of pulling back. When I started to push it's head back forcibly, it thought I was petting it closed its eyes to relax. I think it actually might have been there a long time, like, several hours. I feel like it should have been more scared, but it just seemed to be chilling there, with its head stuck in the bars. Stupid animal. Sindorim - I hate this station. It's always like this. I've done so much more... too bad I can't put it all up here. I guess that just means I'll have more to talk about when I get back.

May 2nd, 2008 Ahh! So I'm leaving for Japan in about forty minutes. I know, it's really random. I think it was Wednesday when I realized I wanted to go (today is Friday). What I thought would be a nice, weekend excursion to Japan, by boat to save money, turned into a four hundred dollar flight... oh well. It's Japan. It will be fun. Alright, one of the biggest things I wanted to do was to update this, and finally finish the China blog before I go someplace else, but alas, that won't happen. Except for this little bit I'm writing right now. I even have pictures lined up and everything to show. I'll do it when I get back, I guess. Right now I have to go get some money to spend while I'm there. Okay, next update should be May 6th!

April 16th, 2008 It's April 15th back at home. Taxes were due today. That was irritating. So, there's a tax law that allows US citizens overseas to not pay taxes on foreign income they make if it's under $85,000. Isn't that cool? That, with an American-Korean agreement that says Americans don't have to pay Korean taxes, means I keep most of my money. What a great concept. Anyway, Spring is in full swing now. Seriously, my sister came on the last week of winter. The week she left it started to warm up, and this last week it's been 70 everyday. I'm lovin' this. I really needed sun. Last Sunday I was actually taking a nap outside in the sun, no coat! Oh, speaking of which, I went to the Yeouido Island park along the Han River last week. It was great. It's cherry blossom season right now. I had no idea there were so many cherry blossom trees in Seoul. Everyone and there mother is trying to get outside and see it these days, so it makes a great social environment of masses of people, looking for something to do. I went there again later that week and played frisbee with friends and soccer with some kid. There's bikes you can rent for the long path along the river which I rollerbladed on a lot in the fall. Seriously, it feels so good to get outside again. Cherry - These are the cherry blossoms along the street on Yeouido island. Blossoms - Close-up shot. Island - It looks sort of barren, but it really is nice. You can see a little bit of the river and the city in this shot. Map - A map of the surrounding area, just in case you're ever in town. Park - I went to Incheon Grand Park finally this last weekend. Not very exciting... It was very paved and packed with people. Traffic getting there was obscene. Yeoudo's nicer, and pretty much takes the same time to get there, too. Not much else happening lately. Today I played soccer with... okay, I just skimmed the last few entries and I don't think I ever mentioned my new middle/high school friends. I use "friends" very loosely. There's some kids that play soccer on my school's playground everyday after school. A few weeks ago I was kicked out of my classroom because some crazy woman keeps scheduling visiting teacher's classes there. It's getting irritating, but instead of complaining and being irritable, I went outside to study Korean in the sun. Of course, one-by-one, all my students and the middle school kids came over to me, fascinated that I was out of the office. It turns out their English teacher is a friend of mine, which isn't that surprising. So, instead of getting irritated that I couldn't study, I started to practice speaking with them instead. It was awesome. I know I shouldn't get that excited about things like that, but I do. They're at the perfect level, where I pretty much know the same amount of Korean as they do English. They're also still young enough to find foreigners really interesting and fun, for no reason at all, and stupid enough that they didn't realize they were learning English and tutoring me in Korean at the same time. All in all, it was a very beneficial thirty minutes. They had asked me if I wanted to play soccer with them. Of course I wanted to, but I was still on the clock and didn't really want my boss to look out the window and see me playing with middle-school students. Today, however, I noticed one of the parents I teach (the only man, actually) playing soccer with them. I really want him to stay in my parent class (his English is pretty good) and figured if I joined the game we'd befriend and he wouldn't feel awkward being the only man there anymore. Also, it was sunny and 77 degrees. So I went and played with them for about an hour. It was pretty fun, very tiring, but fun. I think soccer is one of those games that's really easy to pick up, or at least play if you have no skills. I really haven't played a game of soccer since maybe... elementary school, so I was surprised with how easy it was. Although it took a bit of stumbling in the beginning. I plowed into the opposing team's goalie. Like... he crumbled to the ground. I felt really bad, but seriously, it couldn't have hurt that much. He made a big show like he was really angry with me and was limping. The other boys told me he was "crazy" which may have been a substitute word for "wuss." Nevertheless, I took it down about three notches and made sure he liked me by the end of the game. It's always fun to play sports for the first time, because you improve so much so quickly. Of course, it was easy with the Koreans screaming "good!" at everything I did, including kicking the ball out-of-bounds and completely missing the goal. I kept on saying 아니요! 나뻐요! which basically means "No! I'm not good!" when they gave me the empty praise. I think they were worried I would get discouraged and stop playing. Oh well... it's a good thing I've got no pride. Here's some more pictures: Fruit - Right by my house, this flower-shop that's been there forever was replaced by this fruit-place within a day. I have no idea how they did it so fast. Oh well. This place is great, and actually closer than E-Mart. Compost - I'm really bad with the trash. This is after leaving the compost rotting in that bin for about four months. I was both fighting the urge to vomit and to pet it at the same time. Blades - Some kids were on a roller-blading ramp! It was awesome! They showed off a little when I took out the camera, but seriously, they were good! Night - Some cherry blossoms by my house at night... Girls - My landlord's granddaughters. I tutor them once a week. They're cute and fun, but teaching them is probably the last thing I want to do after a full day at school. Bobbing - We "bobbed" for apples, while learning about Halloween. Okay, so I'm probably going to travel again pretty soon. Actually, maybe quite a bit. In May I'm going somewhere with my Korean friend. I know I want to go to Japan, but he's been there twice already, so I'll probably do that later this summer. He was talking about Taiwan, which I wasn't too excited about after China, but he also mentioned Vietnam, which I really want to see. Any thoughts? Basically, Korea has a few three-day weekends coming up. If I go then, it still leaves me seven work days in the summer, plus another three or four-day weekend in August. Technically, I could take three different trips. Isn't that cool? We'll see, though. I might be pretty busy that last month, and maybe a little depressed. I can't believe I only have 4.5 months left! The last few months flew by. I really don't want to go home, but I know the next few months are going to fly by, too, especially now that the weather's getting nicer.

March 29th, 2008 I just drank a liter of milk. Is that healthy? I feel fine... My sister left this morning. It feels really strange being in the apartment alone again, even though it was only two weeks. I had a good time with her here. I think she enjoyed herself, too. I hope so. She told me she really liked it out here and wasn't ready to go back. That's always a good sign. I was definitely ready to come back here after China. Of course, I didn't have a stable bed, an awesome subway system, a brother with money who knows a bit of the language, and knowledge of where the good restaurants are around the area... but really, for the most part she wandered around places by herself. I'd meet her in Seoul after work, we'd eat, then come back to Bupyeong to sleep. Seoul is a really visitor-friendly city. I do have a lot to type, and lots of pictures, so I should start on that. First things first: I'm a blue belt in Taekwondo. My Sobomnim gave it to me pretty quickly after the green belt, and I know he's rushing me to get a black belt before I leave, but I still feel good about it. I'm getting a lot better. Remember when I said I wasn't even close to doing the splits? Well... today I was stretching with both legs out and I twisted to the side to stretch with one leg in front and one leg in back. I startled myself. Seriously, I was scared. I'm really close to doing the splits that way. Just looking in the mirror made me want to cringe. Boys aren't made to do that, at least not in America. My Sobomnim has also been keeping me after class about 20 minutes each day to go over a few kicks, which is really tiring, but cool. I've been getting a lot better. Stuff that I was physically unable to do about two months ago is easy now. Sarah (my sister) stopped by one practice and took some pictures: Jump : If you look closely at this, you can see how I screwed up. Sarah was distracting. Hoop : If I ever need to kick someone through a round window. I'll be ready. Arch : He's trying to get us to stretch our backs so we can do this flip thing. I don't think I'll get that good before I leave... When Sarah and I first ate at a BBQ, she told me that four of the side-dishes tasted the same. One of them was Ssam-Jang, a sauce that is delicious, and it tastes nothing like the spicy lettuce and kimchi that was supposedly similar. She also is very sensitive to the smell of kimchi and would remark, every so often, that an area or person smells like it. Apparently, my hallways reek of it. I realized that I really don't even notice it anymore, and I can't smell it even if I try. Ever read Dune? I feel like the kimchi is taking over my body, turning me into one of them like the fictitious "spice" does in the book. Soon my eyes will turn blue. Yeah, I'm a nerd. Galbi : This is a restaurant with pretty good meat. We went there twice, because Sarah missed the taste of cow. Gwang : I asked my Korean friend if he knew any good Korean restaurants in Seoul. He mistook the word "Korean" for "traditional" and took us here. It was actually pretty good. Really tiny. Really traditional. Awkward : Both of our smiles look stupid in this, but I'm posting this to show the tables. In case you don't know, Korea doesn't traditionally have chairs. Most of the restaurants on my street, actually, don't have chairs. It takes a bit to get used to, as it's a little hard to sit cross-legged for so long. Egg : It was just a quail egg. Open up, Sarah! Men : Me and Gwangho. You can see more of the dishes in this shot. We went to Mt. Seorak (서락산) the first weekend. It's one of the most famous mountain parks in South Korea. Apparently, it's really different to see every season. I believe it, too. I saw pictures of people who went just a week before us and they were all sunny. The mountain cliffs were orange. It looked really nice, but it was really cool to see all the rain clouds around the mountain peaks when we went, too. Rocks : Look at the size of those boulders. Spring : We tried some water, straight out of the spring. It was called "five flavors" or something like that. Everyone else cringed, but I really liked it. Coast : We could see the coast from the top, bathed in sunlight. Small : Sarah looks tiny against that giant wall of rock. Life : A chipmunk! There are animals in Korea! Grin : Me, looking swell. Water : With the rain, it was just dark enough to take pictures with long exposures. Strong : I don't know what I'm doing. I was a little close to the edge of the cliff and was acting irrational. Meditate : I climbed up the bonus part to the very tip of the peak. This was on the highest rock of the mountain. Obviously I wasn't really meditating, as I had just set the self-timer, but it really was nice up there. It was completely silent, eerily so, and the clouds walled the area in from all sides. If I actively meditated, this would be a great spot to do it. We did a lot more together, and Sarah took pictures of a lot of stuff that I didn't think was weird or unique at all. I guess I thought it was interesting when I first came, and the pictures look good, but I have enough in this entry. Maybe I'll put some of them on randomly in the next coming weeks if I don't take any new pictures myself. Here's a few more: Night : We went up to Seoul Tower at night. Seoul is a really bright city. We didn't really get any good pictures... "Beds" : Our hotel in Seoraksan. This is a good example of something that I forgot is weird. Koreans don't sleep in beds, so many hotels just give you a blanket and a mat. Bugs : At a candy kiosk near city hall they had candy and bugs, just in case you want both. Almost forgot the rabbit... Sarah loved it. She fed it and we took it out all the time. It probably was the happiest the little rodent had been its whole life, which isn't saying much, because it doesn't have feelings. But now I can't just release it into the wild (or the park) when I leave, now that my sister likes it. I don't think she'd forgive me... Carrot : She bought it carrots and everything... great lighting on the whiskers. T'okki : Look at that animal. For the record, it really has been a lot better lately. I don't really yell at it anymore, and now that it's older, its not quite as crazy as it used to be. Also, because I handled it so much when it was little, it pretty much lets me do anything to it these days. So that's it, then. It's back to regular life. Classes started up full-time again, today. All the camps are starting this week. I'm busy as ever. You know... I realized when Sarah came, I've been here almost 7 months now and there's still so much I haven't done. It seems that no matter how much I do, there's always something else I can learn about or see. I think that's really cool and I'm definitely looking forward to the next five months.

March 11th, 2008 The weather has taken a dramatic turn for the better this last week. Seasons are so crazy. Last week it was freezing. This week I'm not wearing a coat. So... sorry that not much exciting has happened to me recently. Learning Korean's still going really well. I'm still liking it here. I'm still eating crazy stuff. Some Koreans took me to this octopus restaurant to eat on Sunday. This may not surprise you at all, but they brought this giant plate of octopus tentacles to the table. I'm fine with that these days, but it was pretty much just a lot of octopus tentacles. Usually there's noodles and such in there. I asked my friend, sort of jokingly, why he bought a giant plate of octopus. He responded that he thought it was a small plate of octopus. Ahh, well that explains it. I also think it's funny that the only question they ask me before they order it is, "Can you eat spicy food?" It shocks many Koreans that Westerners can eat spicy food, yet they don't bat an eye while offering us... you name it. Squid-jerky? Ground-up fish bones? Actually... you know, they did think it was really strange that I ate the blood sausage with little hesitation. I just looked up 순대 (Soondae) on Wikipedia, and I'm still not sure why it's gross. My sister's coming next week! It still hasn't really hit me, although I've been trying to think of lots of things we can do when she gets here. I don't think I've mentioned it yet in the blog because I didn't think she'd actually come, although I would have been very angry if she hadn't. I'm having her bring a lot of stuff out for me, I'm just not sure what yet. I need new shoes. The ones I have are breaking and nothing fits me out here. I should make a list. If I could have anything from America... what would it be? By the way, speaking of shoes... they are so cheap in America! I looked online, and was shocked by the cheap prices. I was also a little surprised in the styles. I hadn't even realized that I've gotten that accustomed to the styles out here, which kind of worries me because I thought they were really feminine when I first came. Hmmm... I guess stuff did happen this week. I met a white guy at E-Mart. He's the first white guy I've seen at the super-store... well, except for this one guy I saw a few months ago, but it was from a distance, and I'm not sure if he counts. I asked him where he was from, and realized quickly that he didn't speak English very well. He was Austrian and was here for a month and a half working at the Daewoo factory near my house. I went on, thinking about it for a bit. I realized that if he'd only been here two weeks, he probably didn't know a lot about the area, so I asked him if he wanted to catch dinner and I'd show him around Bupyeong. Well, it turns out he'd never even been to the station, which... is a big deal. There's a cafeteria/electronic market, a really big underground market of clothes and everything feminine, a bar/club area, a traditional food market, lots of shops, and a few foreign bars. He hadn't even had Korean BBQ, which is definitely a must if you come to Korea. I guess he'd just been eating Mcdonalds and such for two weeks. So sad... so sad... So I showed him around. It was strange. I felt really local and adjusted here. It was good prep for my sister, seeing Bupyeong again with foreign eyes. Dang it. Some little girls just ran away from my office window, giggling. I think I was making a weird expression. I need to get out of this elementary school. My new co-teacher's great... sort of. We get a long very well, but there's something... I can't quite put my finger on it. She knows English pretty well. She teaches English even better. I've spent about a week with her in the classroom, and... she really doesn't need me. At all. Both of my other co-teachers either didn't like teaching the classes or couldn't really teach some of the material very well, so I felt more useful. My new teacher can really handle herself, so I think she's not really sure what to do with me. Last week I just stood around for most of the class. I saw a few parts where I could have jumped in, but she had complete control of them and I would have been talking basically only to alleviate my own boredom. I ended up just studying Korean at the desk until it was my turn to teach the song, basically the thing she felt uncomfortable doing. Today I was given six classes of tests to grade, that which I agreed to do, but assumed she'd be helping with. I really hope I don't just turn into her little assistant/secretary, doing busy-work that she doesn't want to do. I'd say something, but she does seem to be doing something, and I'd have trouble complaining when I spent an hour this morning sleeping at desk. (We had no classes today because of the tests). I went on a paintballing this weekend. I went with Adventure Korea, the group I go on trips a lot with. It was fun but... I guess I've just never shot a paintball gun before. I was expecting to get hit a lot more. I finally got nailed in the head, midair, while jumping into a big ditch to avoid fire (at least that's how I remember it). It really hurt and I still have a bruise. That was pretty cool, but it only happened once. Paintball : My and 광호 looking crazy at the paintball range. EnglandBuddies : Some of 광호's friends from his days in England. They spoke English pretty well. Jjimjilbang : At the 찜질방 after scrubbing each other down, naked. Haha... sorry for the visual. My standards for masculine personal space have almost vanished. Spiderman : Did you know I can walk on subway ceilings? It's a talent I don't talk about much. So now it's technically Wednesday, the 12th. Everything above this was written at school. I just went got back from Seoul, where I had some... tea. Before you judge, it was really interesting, that's why I'm mentioning it here. It smelled like a bad-smelling Christmas tree, but had the sweetest fruit punch-esque orange flavor I've tasted in my life. I forgot what it was called, otherwise I'd post the link. On the train ride home, a nice man offered me a seat next to him. I took it, clearly not thinking. He immediately put his arm affectionately around me and started asking me questions really loudly, beaming a brilliant smile as everyone stared me way on the train. I listened to his story as flecks of spit bounced onto my skin. It turns out he went to the University of Pennsylvania 25 years ago and though he is not a "drunkard," was currently drunk. Drunken business men conversations with foreigners on the subway actually occur more often than you might think. One last interesting observation: As I got off the subway, ready to transfer to the last train up to my home-station, everyone walked at a normal pace. Although we all knew the train wasn't supposed to arrive for another 5-10 minutes, everyone was a little nervous they'd miss it and have to take a taxi home. So... as we walked, I noticed a few people moving faster. I followed suit, as well as the rest of the crowd. No one knew that the train was arriving soon and a faster pace was required to get there in time, but no one knew that no one knew that, so the crowd continued to pick up speed for no reason at all. By the time we were halfway to the platform, half of us were running, only to arrive and wait another 10 minutes for the train. Confusing, I know, but isn't that interesting? What's even weirder, I'll still probably run next time, anyway.

March 4th, 2008 School's back in session, and oh boy, is it fun! Once again I'm reminded why I want to teach older kids. Not that there's anything particularly wrong with elementary school. I just spend so much time with kids these days, too much I think. I can handle them much better than I ever could before I came, and believe me, they love me even thought I yell at them sometimes, but... everyday... lots of kids... the high voices... the laughter...  My new co-teacher tells me she's strict. She's the first elementary English teacher I know that assigns homework. I'm so relieved. Poor kids, that they have to do homework in third grade, but I really wasn't looking forward to another six months of picking up the slack in discipline. I'm trying not to step on her toes, though, because I get the feeling that she'd show some fangs if I don't give her space. But it's great. She told me she's going to give me a schedule next week on Friday. She told me so like it wasn't a big deal. I'm not sure if she realizes that I'm accustomed to hearing schedule changes within ten minutes of the class period. I have to make a big lesson plan thing for the teacher's classes, and she told me it was needed by the end of the week. The end of the week! I'm used to being told about things like that the afternoon they're due. I hope this keeps up. It might just be a "beginning of the year" momentum, but I'd sacrifice the children's happiness for a strict teacher that tells me what's going on any day. If I do this again (teaching), I'm going to teach an older level. And yes, I am really starting to consider coming back here again. It's sort of the talk of a lot of the foreigners lately. Everyone I came with is either thinking of renewing their contracts again, or thinking about what they're going to do after it's over. Personally, I'm trying to think of an excuse to stay, rather, come back. I'm definitely going back to the USA in September. I'll stay for at least four months until Christmas, but then after that... no clue. I'm sure I'll miss Korea. A lot. But I can't just do the same thing again. I'd need a job that's completely different in a different environment, so it continues to be a new experience. Of course, maybe I'll go back to the states and be so overwhelmed with familiarity and conformity that I'll not be willing to put myself back into a foreign environment, but I don't think that'll happen. That's one of the big reasons I'm putting so much effort into learning Korean. The more I learn, the less foreign things will become. I'm not remotely at that level yet, but one of the biggest "factors" that makes things foreign and confusing here is the language barrier. If I could break that... Did I mention I bought a Korean grammar book? Well, I did. My Korean friend convinced me, to which I was very reluctant to comply. I had this crazy sort of notion that I could just learn it just by ear, which had been going nicely, but the grammar book is awesome. I know I shouldn't get so excited about things like that, but it makes things so easy! It just lays out exactly what the rules are. That's really what I needed. Every "lesson" introduces me to a new rule behind words I hear all the time, but just don't realize what they mean. So I kind of had to go back to the very beginning, which was irritating because I sort of had to pretend I didn't know more advanced ways of saying things and fill in the blanks with the simple grammar, but while doing so I realized that I'd been doing a few things wrong from the beginning. Now I know why no one could understand my text messages when I would type in the future tense! And yes, I can text full Korean text messages these days. It's impressive. It takes about 10 minutes to do correctly, but it used to take 20. I was having lunch the other day with my co-workers, and I really wanted to practice my Korean/have a conversation. But I realized the only types of things I could say were, "What time do you watch television?" and such, which isn't very productive. You know, I just realized something. It's pretty common for my co-workers to ask me really random questions like that. I just thought they were really curious about my life, but it could very well be that they are just practicing the little English they know... and I thought they really did want to know what I ate for breakfast that day... Although, in all fairness, I noticed the Korean owner of a restaurant I go to a lot was looking really tired, so I asked him if he was tired in Korean, to which he replied he was. Then I asked him how many hours he slept that night (in Korean!) which is exactly what I'd learned how to say from my grammar book. It worked. I also asked my taekwondo partner what time he had school the next morning and the waitress what time she goes to work. The latter really speaks no English, so I was really glad to communicate anything at all. So... as long as this is going to be a long, boring blog with no pictures, I might as well go on. The "Adventure Korea" group I sometimes go on trips with is planning a few North Korea trips this summer. They have a North Korea trip about every month or so, but usually it's just to a national park and costs about $250-350. I had pretty much no desire to pay so much to go see a mountain, but this trip really... got my attention. They actually go to a city. I'm not sure why this suddenly excites me, but I think it would be so fascinating to see a real North Korean city. And really I don't care about saying "I went to North Korea," because I'm sure we'd still be herded around to all the nice places. I'm more interested in just seeing it. It would be so interesting to see how Korean culture has developed and changed up there in the last fifty years. How much has Western culture affected them? I imagine it hasn't very much. Just seeing restaurants and city layouts and streets and even people would be interesting. You know, the more I think about this the more excited I get. I'm sure the whole Communist bit would bother me. I'd partly expect to see some surviving traditionalism up there, mostly because of the poverty and lack of Western culture, but I'm sure Communism wiped out a bunch of that back in the day. That's what bothered me so much about Beijing. But really, how else can I find out? They scan your digital pictures before you leave the country, making sure you didn't get any wide-angle shots. That's interesting. It will be really fun trying to sneak some pictures back to the South. No... we'll see. I just read about this trip today. I might not go. What do you guys think?

February 26th, 2008 We used nun chucks in taekwondo today. I was totally caught by surprise. Granted, I've seen my instructor messing around with them recently, twirling the twin batons of death, just showing them off, but I've held back the urge to use my foreign appeal and ask him to teach me, because he was already occasionally helping me after class with this flip thing, of which I was pretty grateful for and didn't want to bother him, plus the whole revere of the weapons themselves and the assumption that they're way out of my level. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. Someone with an English degree should know better than to publish a run-on sentence. But it was intentional, I promise. On a more serious note, I have to vent for a moment about North Korea and my lack of understanding for the tolerance that is building up for this country. Okay... backing up a bit. At least in English, no one ever talks about North Korea. I don't know why. I think I mentioned this in another blog, but I've heard way more sentiment towards the Japanese government than even any mention of North Korea at all. Any information I get is from the English-language Korean newspapers. And what is the most recent, big event that makes every article? Straight out of a CNN article: "After successfully testing an atomic bomb in October 2006, North Korea shut down its main nuclear reactor in July and is working to disable it in exchange for aid and removal from U.S. terrorism and sanctions blacklists." (Link to the article) For the past ten years the South Korean government has been giving aid to North Korea due to the Sunshine Policy. The idea behind it is that North Korea is still "Korea" to most Koreans. While it's been divided since the 50s, maps of Korea still show the whole peninsula. Many Koreans have family/hometowns in North Korea. So the policy is supposed to help the Koreans who are stuck up North. So I was starting to think... Is North Korea that bad? Yes, Kim Jong-Il is crazy, but that's old news. Everything's getting better. And we hear horror stories of the living conditions there, but do we really know what it's like? We all know how easy it is for media to stretch the truth with pictures and video. Wow. Okay, so since I posted that CNN link two paragraphs ago, there's been another article posted. I guess they reporters got to see the shut-down nuclear facilities. And, of course, it's very optimistic about the whole situation. North Korea's not so bad. Then I'm reading in the newspaper and stumble across this article. Twenty-two North Koreans were apparently put to death by firing squad after South Korea found them in a fishing boat close to the North/South border and sent them back up to the North. Their charge was attempting to defect from their country. I'm blown away. It wasn't even front-page news. On the same page, there's an article on how North Korea wants aid before the nuke declaration. How is aid even considerable to give to a country that kills its own people for trying to leave to a place that was considered their country only fifty years ago? This sunshine policy, in fact, any aid at all, is just helping this ridiculous government survive. Yes, optimism is good, but while there is still stuff like this going on, how has the focus completely switched to how "good" the country is being for getting rid of their nuclear missles? And how does an event like this not even make front-page news? I'm angered, but more baffled! Yes, I know governments are and have been doing this for thousands of years, but Koreans really care about their people. Besides a few (really) bad eggs, they are much less violent than even Americans. I would expect this in a violent culture, but this seems so far away from what I've seen of the culture here. I don't get how a single event like this alone isn't changing foreign policies. ... there's more I could say about this, comparing it to events happening in other places in the world and other articles that were in that same paper, but I think it would really anger some people. I'm going to leave it at that. * If you think I'm talking from a limited perspective of someone who's just recently stepped out of complete ignorance of the whole situation, let me know why. Sorry there were no pictures, and sorry that I'm still not done with the rest of the China blog. I have all week off (sort of... we'll see if I misunderstood and get fired next Monday) so I'll finish it in the next few days.

February 19th, 2008 The first week of the China blog is up! It's pretty cool. It looks nice and I have a new picture set-up that's pretty easy to use. Use the link above. It took a long time to make, so any praise would be greatly appreciated. I guess it just took a week to get back into the swing of things. I'm not sure what I was talking about last time. I might have just been having a rough couple of days. That's life, though, I guess. I'm loving it out here again. Everyday I've been eating lunch with my co-workers, non of which has been remotely Western food. The strange thing is... it's all tasting good. Everything. I'm eating a lot more spicy food than I used to be able to handle. I keep on getting warned by Koreans that it'll too hot for my feeble American taste buds, only to not really taste the spiciness at all. The language is going great. Really, I've only been actively learning it for almost two months now. I can't really have full conversations with Koreans, and my listening comprehension sucks, but I can usually say something remotely like what I want to say, with English words that most Koreans know to fill in the gaps. It's funny how I find myself doing the same thing Koreans do to me when they try to talk in English, full out with the expressions, sound effects, and the laughing "I don't know, sorry!" at the end when I can't say it correctly, giving up. If you've been teaching in Korean, you probably know exactly what I'm talking about. I had a good Korean-learning weekend, though. Every few weeks, I learn a word-set that opens up huge "doors" for other words and situations. The first was chuseyo (give), then issoyo (is/exist), then there was chiwahae (like), now its sengakae/alaeyo (think/know). Saying "molaeyo" or "I don't know" can be used so much in Korean conversation. I learned it Friday and it's pretty much embedded into my mind already. I hung out with my Korean friend and his non-English-speaking friends this weekend. It was really cool. At first, they didn't really know how to act around me, mostly because they'd never talked to a foreigner in their life. But once I talked to them in bad Korean, being friendly, they were normal and we just had a good time. It was a different side of Korean culture that I hadn't really seen before. The strangest thing was probably the respect. In the picture, we all look happy and natural, and it really felt like that most of the time, but there's definitely a distinct separation between the guys, all because of age. Two of them are five years older than me, the other three are around my age. I've been told many times by Koreans that they only have friends who are their same age, but as my friend telling my that was five years my "senior", I didn't really see how that made any sense. I guess I don't apply because I'm foreign. Supposedly, when an older person tells or even asks a younger person if they'd like to do something, they're supposed to say "yes." So if an older person asks the younger, "Do you want to go get something to eat?" Even if the younger is tired and full, they are supposed to say "yes" anyway and go. The uneasiness between both parties involved would be enough tension to not do that kind of thing on a regular basis. But in good ol' America, we flushed respect for elders down the toilet a long time ago, and can still have friends who are older and younger than us, so it's not a problem. I just thought they were all friends and didn't realize that five years was enough to "respect" someone because they were older than you. It really wasn't even that noticeable. I only started thinking about it at the very end, after I told my Korean friend that his friends were cool, his response being "they're not my friends." It really took me by surprise, and even though I spent about two days with them, it took that for me to look back on everything and realize that there hadn't really been that much interaction between the two groups. They had fun, though. And it's not awkward, it's just different. Everything's changing at school. My co-teacher is officially not my co-teacher anymore. Her goodbye present was leaving me with three days of 2nd grade workshop to do by myself with kids who don't know the alphabet. She definitely knew that this would probably happen and chose not to tell me. I just erased a big chunk of this paragraph, venting about how the whole workshop was her idea and such... but you don't need to read about it here. Just know that the whole situation is ridiculous, and I'm using a lot of my Korean skills in the classroom. That's probably the one good thing about this whole situation. It's really good practice.  My new co-teacher seems nice, but kind of quiet and shy. I'm a little nervous she won't discipline the kids. Her English is a lot better, though, which is really nice. More new things at taekwondo. My stretching/sparring partner told me he's "maybe" not going to continue coming after he gets his 2nd Degree black belt, because something about being too busy. I understand. He's going to college and he's way past the level of anyone in the class, anyway. It just made last week really...dull. The other foreigners I used to go with don't really go anymore, so all last week I was the only person in the class who had a middle school diploma. I wasn't about to quit, I really do like going, but I was just starting to complain to people and starting to think of other foreigners I could convince to come so I could talk to someone. Then, out of the blue, this other random black-belt Korean shows up to class. His voice had changed, so he was at least in high school, but I wasn't sure why he was there. It turns out he is five years older than me, which is awesome that I'm no longer the awkward old guy in the class. He's starting up again because of his "health," and says he's going to keep it up. By the way- remember way back when I said I'd be able to do the splits by February because of all the stretching we do in Taekwondo? Well... I can't. I'm not even close. I've pushed my goal back to September, but even that seems a little unrealistic at this rate.

February 12th, 2008 Back in Korea! China was... interesting. There were definitely ups and downs, but I'll save that for the big blog entry later. I wrote a journal-thing throughout the trip and I plan on typing it all out tomorrow. I also want to make it interesting with pictures and such so you guys actually read it. It will take awhile, but it was definitely a learning experience, not remotely what I expected, and should be an interesting read. Living in and writing about Korea, I've been painting a picture of Asia that really is only a small chunk of what is out there. Mostly, I just realized how different the two countries are, and how much I don't know about the different cultures that are out here. I just assumed that certain things, like heated floors and giving/accepting things with two hands was pretty standard for Asian countries, but I guess that's not the case. Korea's a really cool country. I'm so glad I'm teaching here instead of China, I just wish the culture here was a little bit more well-known in the states. Onward. I think I'm going through a slump. It took me totally by surprise. I'm approaching the six-month mark, another signature time for foreigners to miss home. I didn't see it coming at all, and part of me still isn't really convinced its anything at all. It's different than my three-month mark. Let me explain. While in China, I was exposed to a completely different culture I wasn't prepared for. It was good for the first week, even though I found myself saying "I miss Korea" a lot. After the first week, I was more just passing the time until I could get back here. In my mind, I sort of created an image of Korea as a place I was completely adjusted to, expecting myself to slide right back into everything and be perfectly normal once I got back. Then I got back. I'm going to make a new paragraph so this one doesn't drag on and look too intense when people first start reading it. Right away, I noticed myself being a little self-conscious about my appearance. Granted, the horrible smell I smelled in the subway at the airport turned out to be myself... but it was more than that. My hair is maroonish-brown. I hadn't really thought about it in China because I didn't really care, but I guess here seems more like real-life. I'm just not sure if people are judging me when they stare. It's not even really a stare, but more of a glance, like "Oh, a foreigner," then on with normal business. I should be used to it, I just must have gotten too used to it before I left for China and forgot that it happens at all. People will practically study you in China, just watching you like you're an interesting plant or an animal, so the Korean glancing shouldn't bother me, but it does. I created an image of a country that I completely fit in, but I don't. No matter how long I stay here, from the first impression, I'll always be a foreigner. It's sort of depressing.         This is me, exhausted and lost in Yangshou. You can barely see the amazing karst mountains in the background, but I'm putting this up to show you the dye, so you'll know what I'm talking about. See? It doesn't look bad, but it's just enough to know its not natural. The other thing I noticed was the language. I really don't know any Korean at all. I can get by. I can speak more than most foreigners I know. I can read faster than I remembered, but really, China made me think I knew more than I did. All the communication I did in China with Chinese people who didn't speak English was pointing at Chinese words in the book we had. and miming. and sound effects. Every time I did that, I thought of how to say it in Korean and I could. So in my mind, I built up the idea that I could speak and read the language, but I can't. It was just sort of a let-down when I got back. And even the country itself. Before I left, I couldn't imagine going back to the states. I found myself missing parts of Korea, while still having about seven months left. It was weird how attached I was to this place. And now, most of that is gone. For the first week, all I thought about at night when I was freezing, hungry, and slightly delirious, was Korea and what I missed, but in the second week, most of that changed to America. Even now, I find myself thinking of America a lot and people there. I don't know why, and its happening less and less as I'm getting back into my normal life (school started back up today), but I think the problem was probably rooted into China and being a complete foreigner again, wanting a place where I completely fit in. So strange... But... I'm making it sound worse than it is. The big problem, probably the reason I snapped and am writing about this right now is this: I missed the Super Bowl. A teacher mentioned it today, assuming I knew everything about it. I didn't even know who was playing. I mean, I had a pretty good idea, and guessed correctly, but I was in a state of shock. This was the game. This was something I have been looking forward to since September. This is the only football game that is watched by Koreans. This was probably the one chance I had at seeing a football game during my entire stay in Korea. I don't know what happened. I guess I'm still in shock. I was thinking about China, and didn't even realize. I could have prepared to miss it. But I hadn't heard anything about it. All my friends out here are Canadian and they don't care about Football. In reality, its really not a big deal. I kept up with the Bears' games, so I should be satisfied. Part of it is just my disassociation with America these days. I've been trying to keep up with the presidential primaries, but its really hard. I heard from an Australian that Giuliani and Romney dropped out. A Korean told me Hilary won when she was on TV, but it was a translation error. But it was frustrating, not even knowing if he was right or not. These are big things in American culture, and I really have no idea what's going on. And it's the Super Bowl. Seriously. I did the math, and I was on a bus to Yangshou in South China at the time of the game. It really would have been impossible for me to watch at the time, because we were really desperate for any ticket we could get our hands on with the craziness that was China during the New Year's festivities. But I'll get to that in the China blog. On a good note: I was expecting myself to not enjoy the food as much here, because I really like Chinese food. But my taste buds have changed a lot since September. At a Korean BBQ today I ate some kimchi and didn't even realize it was kimchi. That's a pretty big deal. I found myself really enjoying the food. I didn't realize how much I'd gotten used to it. A few days ago I accidentally ordered a "seafood soup" for lunch. Basically it was a spicy noodle soup with whole clams, octopus, and shrimp in it, probably more, but those three were the only things I could recognize. That would have made me puke last summer, and I still can't get myself to eat clams (thank you, high school biology class), but I ate everything else fine, and it tasted good. I really am starting to like Korean food, not just tolerate it like I used to. Like I said, its really not a big deal. And its good to know that if this is the six-month slump (a little early), its really nothing and will go away in a few days.