Honestly, now.

It’s amazing how much stuff a person can amass in just a few years.  What is even more surprising to me is how attached I can get to all this junk.  In that way, I think moving is kinda good for me.  It certainly has limited the amount of shoes I have purchased. 

I fly out of Seoul, very possibly for the last time, in just 38 days.  While walking to the bus stop, I realized that I’m going to miss a few things about Korea.  I’m going to miss the insane bravery of the delivery guys on scooters.  They weave in and out of traffic at fantastic speeds, shoot around corners, and work in all kinds of weather. 

Thirty-eight days.  Huh.

Oh yeah, I made a wonderful shepard’s pie last night.  I didn’t take as long as I thought it would and it turned out to be really tasty.  This is good because I’ll be eating it for a week.

As much as I like Korea, I need to get out of here. Granted, I don’t know where I’ll end up. It’s funny for me to find myself in a situation where I don’t know in what country I’ll be living in a few months. But here’s what I do know. In 41 days, I’ll fly to Germany to see a friend from high school. After that, I’m not sure. I’d kinda like to get a job not in Asia. Working here is alright and traveling is awesome, but I seriously miss western culture, food, and the opportunity to blend in. I can do a lot of things in Korea, but blend in is not one of them. Right now, it’s way too early in the morning and I’d love to crawl back into bed. However, I have to get to class in about ten minutes and do my best imitation of perky and chipper. What are my plans? A nap in the near future and Germany in 41 days. After that, I haven’t a clue.

I finally (finally!) finished what should be my very last intensive in Korea. Ever. Period.  For those of you who don’t know, intensives are a time when I hand over all of my free time to my job for about four weeks.  I essentially lived at work. And it’s finally over.  Downside, they changed the class schedule around and I won’t have some of my very favorite students anymore.  Upside, some of my new classes are hilarious.

I’m supposed to start with a Korean tutor this week.  We’ll see how that goes.  Basically, I’m trying to keep myself as busy as possible so that I don’t have time to count down the days until I leave Korea.  Granted, I’ve had an amazing time here.  However, for those of us with a penchant for large green spaces, Korea slowly erodes your soul.  I need trees and lots of ‘em.  Korea is my soda.  Good in small doses but if injested daily it can lead to all sorts of heath problems.  Yeah, four months left.

After that, the plan is to visit qkslvrwolf in Germany and possibly meet up with other friends as well.  Then back to Kansas.  I’m planning on staying with the folks (partly just to hang out with them and partly to save money) and going back to school.  I’ve already been accepted so at least that’s taken care of.  But then again, I can be awfully flakey when it comes to plans.  It’s difficult to settle back down when I get emails of job offers in Thailand, Poland, and Quatar.  I should really just start blocking them; they are far too tempting.

Alright, I’m off to finish cleaning my house. (I had a birthday party last weekend.  Very fun. However, my sink is so small that I have to do all the dishes in shifts.)  Peace.

I woke up late.  I burned my breakfast.  I had to cab to school so I wouldn’t be late.  I forgot to make copies of the assignment.  I realized that I forgot to have the students check their homework yesterday.  I had an awesome day and I’m not even being sarcastic. Really.

First, I’m amazed at the difference the CELTA has made in my teaching.  I was told that I was a good teacher before.  However, I couldn’t really believe it.  There’s a HUGE difference between a good teacher and one that is merely likeable.  I always figured that I leaned towards the latter.  Turns out that a little training goes a long ways.  Not only in the way I teach, but I’m certainly a lot more satisfied with my job.  I’m happiest with my employment situation when I can walk out of the school and know that not only did the students learn something, but they enjoyed the lesson as well (at least a part of it).  I’m well aware that the material that I’m teaching is a little beyond their level.  Actually, for some of them, it’s far beyond their level.  But still, today all of my students could tell me and (to certain degrees) demonstrate what personification is.  Not only that, but we had fun with it as well.

It’s also a good day because it’s my friend’s birthday.  I made brownies last night and I enjoyed it.  (It also doesn’t hurt that my apartment now smells like brownies.)  Cooking and baking are a few of my very favorite things to do, but only when doing it for other people.

I have a bunch of little resolutions for this year but they all can be neatly packaged into once sentence: this year I resolve to be happy.  Corny? Definitely.  Trite? Certainly not.  There are some things in this world that I desperately want and I’m not going to stop wanting or pursuing them.  However, over the past  two years or so my priorities have taken a painful shift.  I say “painful” because it’s been (at times) excruciating.  I’m not being over-dramatic or indulging in hyperbole.  It was what it was and now it’s over and I’m not particularly sorry for any of it.  A lot has changed, I’m just trying to keep up.  But I’ve meandered off the topic….

Yeah, I’m happy.  I had a good day today.  Here’s my top five things for today (in no particular order) that I’m thankful for:

friends that I can cook for

a student named Jane, who is excitable and obnoxious but tries so hard to be good in my class

my toaster over

my refrigerator magnets (the ones of my nephews)

Jessie, my amazing and forgiving partner teacher. i’ve got a ways to go before i’m up to her level at work, but at least i have something to aim for.

I didn’t go to work today.  Instead, I stayed prone on my bed and it was nice.

I must look rather friendly.  Or at least non-threatening.

I was riding the subway last weekend.  I noticed a little girl (maybe 5 or 6) wearing a bright pink coat.  She was tugging at her mom’s sleeve and looking at me.  Her mom bent down down and the little girl whispered something.  The mom nodded and the little girl came over to me.

“Hi,” she said.

“Hello,” I replied.

She grinned and walked back to her mom.  A moment later, she was back.  The little girl and her mom were getting ready to get off the train.  Holding her mom’s hand, the girl grinned at me again and took my hand.  I blinked.  I looked at the mom, who shrugged and looked away.  I couldn’t help but think what an odd little temporary family we must appear to be.  It lasted a few minutes (until the next stop), then she let go of my hand and got off the train.

Something similar happened to me in the store today.  I was shopping this evening when a boy of about eight walked up to me and took my shopping list.  He wasn’t particularly rude about it; he just took it.  He studied it for a little while, returned it, and then disappeared.  I was perplexed, but continued with browsing.  He was back a few minutes later with a stapler, which was on my list.  He examined my list again and left.  This time he returned with tape.  He got stuck at the pencil sharpener.  He asked me what it was and I showed him.  He disappeared again.  He came back witha  pencil and paper.  He took my list and crouched on the floor, carefully copying the words “pencil sharpener.”  He returned my list, thanked me, and went on his way.  And that was that.

Odd, but kind of nice.

I’ll leave tonight at 6pm.  I’m leaving my phone in Phuket (since I just borrowed it from a friend) so I’ll be hard to get a hold of for the next few days.

First things first.  I’m alive and well.  Nothing remotely bad or scary has happened to me.  My travel plans went from simple to stupidly complicated, but things should work out alright.  I was supposed to fly from Bangkok.  Obviously, not going to do that.  My flight was canceled and then re-booked.  However, I’m flying out of Chiang Mai.  Meaning I have to get to there.  Tomorrow evening, I’ll hop on a bus sit there for 12 hours on my merry way to Bangkok.  Hopefully, I’ll get to sleep through most of it.  Then, Monday morning, I’ll catch either another bus or a train from Bangkok and chill for another ten hours on my way to Chiang Mai.  I’ll arrive just in time to find a hotel, crash, wake up, and get on the plane.  I’ll fly to Taipei, transfer, and then on to LA.  After that, it depends on how well I can butter up the airline staff into changing my ticket.  I’m currently flying into New Orleans.  However, with all the current muck, I’d rather just come home.

That’s the plan, anyways…….

The current situation is rather icky.  Basically, a lot of people want to get rid of the Prime Minister because they feel that he’s just a puppet of the old government that they overthrew last year (they are also very much for the king-but that’s almost never mentioned).  Demonstrators have taken over all of the government buildings.  The Prime Minister is planning on bringing is the police.  This part I’m sketchy on.  A few months ago, something similar happened.  However, when the Prime Minister ordered the military to pitch in, the military did……….nothing.  There’s a lot more, but I’m still confused by it all.

That’s about all I know right now.  Most of my information comes from either Thais or the foreigners who can read Thai.  I find myself getting more and more annoyed with the Western reporting on the situation.  There’s a whole lot of focus on the  tourists.  One article even went so far as to say that they were “hostages to a deepening political crisis.”  Yes, it sucks that this is such a mess, but hostages?  For me the word “hostage” implies that someone is sitting there, trembling and helpless, with a gun to their head.  Okay, people might be trembling, but aside from a very small percentage of cases, people aren’t helpless.  There are dozens of routes to get out of the country.  Yes, people will have to do some legwork, but if you’re sweet to the locals, they’re more that happy to help you out.  I feel for the people who have limited mobility of other health problems, but I’m increasingly annoyed with everyone else.  Sure, it stinks for the tourists, but what about the people who say that their not afraid to die for their cause, that they will not back down, and they are willing to be human shields.   Isn’t that information a little more pertinent?

P.S.  I passed my CELTA.  I’ll have to wait a week to receive my final grade.

Heyla.  Got a phone set up in Thailand, so feel free to give me a call via my Skype number.  Best time is between 6pm and 8pm (Thai time).  Other than that, I’ll either be swimming, in class, or studying.  Weekends are also good.

Class is keeping me busy and it’s only day two. Yikes.

Creative title, I know.

Today was supposed to be spent getting up early and going to the beach.  Although I woke up early, I didn’t get started early.  I decided to just stay in bed a bit and listen to whatever was going on around my apartment.  Which was, it turned out, a pretty good way to start the day.  After ambling downtown to find some grub, I vetoed the idea of going to the beach.  I didn’t have the time, especially since I was meeting Nahn for dinner.  Instead, I made use of the pool (which doesn’t smell like chlorine) by the complex.  I spent a few hours swimming and reading.  I even met of few of the tenants, which was nice.

Later, Nahn and I met up and wandered around the night market for a while.  She bought things for supper (we ate at a lovely British couple’s house).  It was a relaxing evening.  Except that I had to pay very close attention to everything everyone said.  It took me a while to get used to all the accents in the room.

Well, I’m off to bed.  Enjoy the updates while you can.  Next week, I expect to be frightfully busy. 

And, as always, click on the photo below to get the link to the rest of today’s photos.

Phuket Day 4