Meandering Absentmindedness

Holy crap. It's been an eternity since I've blogged. What's becoming of me? Well, first of all my delimma is this: I don't have a computer, and neither does Rob since it's been shipped back to Canada to be fixed under warranty. Some sort of "motherboard" issue. Whatever that means.

Anyway, a lot has happened, and as usual as soon as I sit at the computer in this dark and shady PC room all thoughts leave my mind as if they never existed in the first place. I can never remember all of the funny and interesting things that have happened between blogs.

Well, I'll start with today. It's Tuesday and I had the day off today. I get my typical 10 days of paid vacation, plus holidays. But this is a different sort of thing. This is the "Korean Teacher's Holiday" at my school only that I, as a lazy foreigner, get to cash in on. Hey, no one's complaining here.

So anyway, I went to this place called Suwon today for the second time ever since being here. The first time was to walk the fortress wall and this time was to check out the Korean Folk Villiage. I wasn't sure what to expect, or really how long the commute would actually be, but it turned out to be pretty good. First of all, we decided to leave around 1pm. Probably not the best choice since the total travel time there turned out to be about two and a half hours. Not to mention the heat, plus the drizzle that was present for the duration of the day. Still not complaining, I had the day off work.

So finally we arrived at this Folk Villiage, got our tickets and started wandering around. It was actually quite huge, but the two hours or so spent there was more than enough time to see all that we needed to. There were all sorts of building reconstructions to make this entire villiage of huts, barns, stages, pathways. If you didn't know any better (that Japan burned this entire country to the ground... a few times...) you'd think it was all authentic.

After eating a really good dinner at this place, some of the best Kimchi Jiggae I've had yet, and not before spilling some of that dang red pepper sauce on my khaki coloured pants (doesn't top Matt spilling kimchi on his crotch at our after church lunch!), we started the trek back home to Chang Dong.

One of the highlights of the Village, although I'm sure it wasn't intended to be so, was the two teeny puppies we found just chillin in a dog house alone by some other huts. No one really seemed to be around to tend to them, and they were really too small to even walk. Super cute though, I kinda wanted to keep one. Just like a Korean baby....puppies and babies are the same...right?

The rest of the weekend seems to be a blur. Sunday I went shopping with friends in Gangnam, but I didn't really buy anything. Monday was more shopping at Dongdaemun Stadium. Prior to this visit, I vowed that I would never go there again because it's just too busy, plus I really despise shopping (surprising that I hate it yet I went twice in one weekend). Anyway, I returned for the third time and didn't mind it too much, although I didn't end up with anything but a necklace. Buying accessories is way too difficult for me, so I mostly avoid it.

Later on Monday night Rob and I went to Nowon to meet Jennica and Jamie Graham who have just joined the expat crew here in Korea. We were on our way to Nowon station, one stop from where I live, arrived and called the Grahams as promised. Only to realize that I had the wrong phone number. I couldn't get a hold of them. So Rob and I sat out front of the Lotte Department Store for an hour watching these Korean guys skateboard for a while. I got bored so we decided to walk around a little in hopes that Jamie or Jennica would give us a call wondering where the heck we were. No such luck. I guess they figured that we just weren't coming and didn't have the courtesy to call them to let them know. They were on their way to Japan the following morning so decided that they would call it a night and go to bed. It wasn't until a random call to Kevin Dueck made by Rob at 10:30 Monday night while Kevin was in Pusan, did we discover the real number thanks to Kevin's call display and a call made by one of the two of the Graham's earlier that night. I called, woke up Jamie, and explained my situation. I was just worried that they were going to think that I was a total jerk for not calling. I know that they're both way too nice even to consider it, but still, explaining that I had waited for two hours for them to call me wondering if I had been hit by a bus on the way over made me feel a lot better about the whole situation. So I bought a T-shirt in Nowon and went home.

As for work, nothing too exciting. I'm working overtime these days, so I'm a little tired. Not to mention my work out schedule has been a little intense partly due to early morning boredom and the risk of feeling lazy, and also because at the gym is where I practice Korean and assist in more English teaching with my friend, Sung Joon, the trainer there.

I'll try to keep future posts closer together, to avoid these massive random posts that seem to drag on and on in a winding fashon. Also when my computer gets here (ps I bought one!) I'll be able to not only keep in touch a whole lot better, but also start posting some pictures again.

To those of you who don't "just look at the pictures" thank you for continuing to read!

Andrea