Honestly, now.

Somedays I want to just stay in bed and not bother wandering out into the world. 

Fortunately, I have a dog and a job.  Either the dog goes out or I have to clean up a mess.  Either I go to work or I go back home.  And as sucky as some days are, I’m pretty sure they’d be worse if I didn’t have any money.  Money can’t buy happiness, but it can take the edge off of misery. 

I will be okay.  I just need some time to mull over some things and I imagine that by Sunday I’ll be right as rain.  

And it sure doesn’t hurt that I like my job.   

In the midst of mulling, I took Badugi for a walk by the river.  I let him off of the leash and ran about with him.  When it was time to put the leash back on, I had him jump into my arms (I was standing up), much to the amusement of passerby.  As much as a royal pain that dog was as a puppy, I’m very glad I have him.  He’s grown into a pretty nice dog. 

Sorry this is so spacey.  I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep last night (woke up waaaaaaaay too early) and so I’m prone to tangents.  And grammar mistakes.  And spelling mistakes.  (Yeah, yeah Mike.)

I’m at work waiting for someone to get here and tell me to go home.  There’s nothing for me to do here.  The middle school students have a HUGE test at public school next week so they aren’t coming to DYB this week.  All I teach today is middle school.  Or, should I say, all of what I don’t teach.  So I’ve graded some essays, red a few chapters in my book, and now I’ve just woken up from a nap. 

Still no word on the visa situation.  Bleh.

This weekend was quite fun-filled.  After work on Saturday, I headed into Seoul with most of the local yahoos (said affectionately, of course) to eat a yummy turkey dinner.  Three cheers for military base being relatively close.  Granted, most of the time, I’m not so happy to be associated with the army kids.  Some of the are very cool.  However, there are enough drunken jerks about to give the group a bad name.  But the turkey was nice. 

I didn’t stay long.  I was tired. 

The next day, I had a bunch of people over to my place so that I could inflict my cooking on them (insert evil laughter here).  Yes! Take that!  Eat French toast with blueberry topping! AHAHAHAHA!

Later, Chris, Mary and I went to Insadong to get some Xmas shopping done.  Hopefully, I will be completely finished by next weekend.  I’d like to send some stuff back to Kansas in the first week of December.  Otherwise, I risk not getting it done at all.  (This is me, after all.)    Aside from some truely horrid coffee and low blood sugar, the day was lovely.  I’m tempted to go back next weekend, but I know that I’d mostly just be shopping for myself.  Heck, I still might go back.

Although I’m at a complete loss as to what to get several members of my family, I’m please with how much I got done.  I’m about a third of the way through.  Some of it I’ll have to do online, but that’s okay. In spite of my best efforts to remain bitter and angry about the holiday season (blame retail America.  eight years of greed and shallowness smashed in my face.  After seeing two women go to blows over a Furby or dealing with someone who is so angry that they go and drop a load somewhere in the store, the joy and warmth of the holiday kinda gets sucked away for a while.)  I am finding myself looking forward to Christmas.  Despite the lack of close friends and family, I’ll still have a good time with new friends and Badugi.  Things are going to be just ducky.  However, I am a little sad that I won’t be able to see the looks on my family’s faces when they open up their gift.  (Unless someone gets Skype working at Mom’s house.  Hinthinthinthinthinthinthint.)

I got to go teach.  Take care.

I completely forgot the holiday until Qing reminded me.  (For some reason, my mind is behind a day.  I thought it was Wednesday for about four hours this morning.)  This holiday will be uneventful.   I’m at work right now.  I’ll go home.  I’ll walk the dog.  I’ll go to sleep.  No turkey for me today.  (I’m celebrating the holiday on Saturday with a bunch of foreigners, but today I’m a good little DYB employee.)

However, that doesn’t mean I’m not thankful.  I’m lucky.  It took me years to figure it out, but I am.  Extremely fortunate.  If you have ANY savings and no debt, then you are in the top ten percent of the world’s weathliest people.  Kinda puts things in perspective when I’m feeling rather broke.  I do, after all, have enough money to buy food.  But this isn’t what I really wanted to talk about.

Earlier this week, I was in the shower when my doorbell rang.  And rang.  And rang.  And rang.  Now, for those who haven’t heard my doorbell, well, the word “jarring” comes to mind.  I thought it was my friend Mary, so  I hopped out of the shower, threw on a towel, and answered the door dripping wet.

It wasn’t Mary.

It was a VERY surprised delivery man.  I scooped up Badugi to prevent his escape and signed for the package (yes, I said it, and you can stop snikering.  You know you are.).  It was from Qing.  Yeah!  First, I was excited because now I have Xmas presents in the corner of my room. (Well, one present.  I opened two of them already.  In my defence, I knew what they were.)  Second, my pair of boots arrived!  And just in time for the first snow.  And third, COFFEE.  Good, rich, take-the-roof-off-your-mouth coffee.  And enough to set me for winter.  Yeah!

So yeah, I’m pretty thankful.  For a lot.  I won’t have my close friends to celebrate with at Christmas, but I do have them now.  And that’s all I can really ask.

I’m glad I have a family that cares enough to wake me up at 3am just to wish me well.  I’m grateful for all of them.  Mom, who makes me great food and offers to have a “She changed her mind” party for me.  Dad, who is always looking out for everyone, except maybe himself (avoid mean cows please!).  Lisa, who manages to stay calm unless I take her hiking.  Rick, who got me to actually like bluegrass.  Joan, who I look to for a model on how to be brave.  I swear she fearless, or maybe she just hides it well.  Okan, who is so much fun to watch when he plays with his kids, those boys are lucky.  Becky, who forgives me for occasionally going nutty and has always (even when we’ve been fighting) been there for me.  Christopher, for his antics and for being surprisingly sweet.  Alexander, for being snuggly.      

I’m thankful for Qing, who I’m convinced in an ax murder because he’s so darn nice.  He put up with me during my last few hours in the states and he still thinks I’m alright. 

And then there are my Korea friends:

Mary: Who is a sister.  A short, Asian sister. 

Chris: Who is leaving and I will miss horribly. I admire his conviction.

Carina: She loves to cook as much as I do.  I envy her motivation, for I have none.

Rachel: The veggitarian of the group.  I enjoy our morning walks alot.

And the friends back home that, despite my horrid correspondence skills, still like me.  I miss you guys. 

Shoot.  I have to cut this short.  Class is about to start.  Anyways, I hope everyone has a great day!

So I’ve started doing yoga.  I figured I needed a way to de-stress.  Anyways, I was reading my yoga book this week and I came across a way to become aware of your thinking patterns.

Basically, for seven days you monitor your thoughts.  You can only keep thoughts that are positive, constructive, optimistic, and kind.  All other thoughts must be flicked away.  It’s harder than it sounds.  Turns out, I do quite a bit of negative thinking.  But I’m working on it.

After seven days, you’ll be mentally tired.  However, you will have established a new way of thinking.

I start tomorrow.

Turns out that’s my past time.

Anyways, I have nothing new or terribly interesting going on in my life.  (Aside from gaining a new appreciation for the Mexican population in the U.S.)  One of my favorite Korean teachers just put in her letter of resignation, which makes me sad.  I really like her.  I started doing yoga in the mornings (in my apartment, not a class. I’m feeling rather broke).   I’m trying to get motivation to study Korean again, but we’ll see how that goes.

So, for your amusement, I offer up my favorite essay excerpts:

“My sister is my favorite person. She is fat, ugly, and kind.”

(Traditional Korean backhanded compliment.)

“I don’t like write my diary. Because I don’t like someone check my diary. It is human rights infringement.”

(You just gotta love the over use of an electronic dictionary.)  

“Now I do not want a sex friend.  But when I am older I must have a sex friend.”

(they meant “boyfriend” or “girlfriend.” I can’t remember which) 
“My character is free and easy, so I like to play with boyfriends.”

(I have no idea……..) 

So I knew before I came back to Korea that a lot of my friends were going home for Christmas.  However, I thought a few of them were staying.  But everyone decided  to go home for the holidays, with the exception of Chris.  Yesterday, Chris told me that he’s quiting and he’s going home……around the 21st of December.

Well, that’s just great.

I’m not terribly upset.  Just kinda bummed out.  All the people that I’ve known for a while and care about aren’t going to be here.  Granted, I work on Christmas, but I was still looking forward to cooking a nice meal for someone.

Maybe I’ll just go to Butterfinger Pancake or Franky’s Sandwich Shop for my Christmas dinner.

The word is that I’ll be send for my visa the end of this month, which is good.  Very good.  However, I have to get my tourist visa extended, which isn’t a problem.    Hmm….I just realized that I may end up spending thanksgiving in Japan.  Well, I’ll be thankful that I got my visa. 

I have my suspicions that my school may (possibly) have bribed someone at immigration.  Nothing solid to go on, just a sneaky idea. 

Other than that, I don’t know much. 

But overall, I’m doing well and being careful.  Very, very careful. 

So I have a meeting at the head office on Monday.  I have no idea what it’s about or what is going on.  Considering where I’m at, that’s really no surprise. 

There’s no point in getting upset about the inevitable communication breakdowns (of which there are MANY).  No point whatsoever.  It wouldn’t help with the language barrier, not to mention the cultural one.  Granted, I get frustrated at times.  Being a woman in this country is maddening in dozens of different ways.  For example, the largest sized dress should that I could buy here would be about an 8.5.  However, the running shoes (specifically for women, mind you) go up to about a size 10.  I get funny looks for laughing out loud in public and aparrently that “please come and talk to me” aura transcends languages.  But I’m straying from my point……Basically, living here is an exercise in staying calm.  (Lisa can attest to that.  Something about subways make me rather zen.)

So I have 16 days to leave the country and no idea when the school is sending me.  I really hope next week.  I’d like to get settle into a work schedule.  Yeah, I want to work.  I want to get on with things so this year will go quickly.  I want to hurry up and get back home.  Which is odd, because it’s the first time I’ve felt that way.  (I was dreading going home just a few months ago.)  It probably has something to do with the fact that I feel like I have a life waiting for me. 

I just need to save up some money first.