Mid-September update
After another mild drama at work involving me and students who claimed I was being mean, all is well again. My kids who can't read, speak, or understand any English are slowly improving. I hope it's not too little too late, because we have our monthly test next week, and I'll only see them one more time before then.
I've been watching lots of movies on the weekend. Best one so far has to be "9". Go see it, it's great!
Last weekend I walked over to the nearest mountain range. I took a cable car about halfway up (it was really cool). Then I walked up to the top of the mountain, where I could see all the way to the ocean! On the way, I came upon an ancient gate. It was built 300 years ago to keep out Japanese and Chinese invaders. Then they stopped invading for about 200 years, so it fell into disrepair. It didn't help when the Japanese came back in 1900. There was a sign telling about it in Korean, English, Japanese and Chinese... The Korean and English were about 10 times longer than the Japanese and Chinese. I realize Kanji/Chinese characters are much more condensed than Korean or English, but I got the impression that the Japanese and Chinese said something like, "Your people caused us a lot of trouble here. Get out of our land!". So then I hiked down the hill, down ancient stone steps. It was murder on my legs, my calves still ache from it. On the way, I found a Buddha carved into a large rock. I went up to investigate, and found a dark little cave next to it, with flickering candles inside. It would have been cool to look inside, but I'm sure there was some hermetic monk in there who didn't want to be disturbed by a curious foreigner. So I kept going down.
I bought my flight home! I found a really cheap deal from Tokyo to St. Louis that I went for, and got reimbursed. While I've had a few disagreements with my employer, my experience has generally been good enough that I'd like to save them a little money. So I get home the night before Thanksgiving! I have to say, I'm way excited about that, my week in Tokyo, and my two weeks in Australia.
Every time I go out lately, I'm struck anew by how much I love Busan. It's a really great city, and I couldn't have picked a better place to spend a year in Korea. If anyone else is heading this way, I'd recommend it to any kind of person. I'll miss it, and I'll always love it, even though my opinion of Korea in general isn't always the highest. I'll leave with warm, fuzzy feelings.
When I get home, I will need a job. And a car. And a cell phone. Once I have those, I'll be looking into getting an apartment. Possibly with a roommate. And a new computer. Looking farther out, I think a place in the country where I can have a fish pond, goats, chickens, and a horse would be fun (with a dog and the rest of my potential animal collection). But we'll see about that, I'm still working out what I really want out of life. Too bad I don't have an undiscovered wealthy relative who will leave me lots of money... Most of my family lives comfortably, but nobody's really rich. And marrying into money isn't looking too promising either. Alas! I think a lot about the future. I enjoy the present, but I really do live in the future.
I've been watching lots of movies on the weekend. Best one so far has to be "9". Go see it, it's great!
Last weekend I walked over to the nearest mountain range. I took a cable car about halfway up (it was really cool). Then I walked up to the top of the mountain, where I could see all the way to the ocean! On the way, I came upon an ancient gate. It was built 300 years ago to keep out Japanese and Chinese invaders. Then they stopped invading for about 200 years, so it fell into disrepair. It didn't help when the Japanese came back in 1900. There was a sign telling about it in Korean, English, Japanese and Chinese... The Korean and English were about 10 times longer than the Japanese and Chinese. I realize Kanji/Chinese characters are much more condensed than Korean or English, but I got the impression that the Japanese and Chinese said something like, "Your people caused us a lot of trouble here. Get out of our land!". So then I hiked down the hill, down ancient stone steps. It was murder on my legs, my calves still ache from it. On the way, I found a Buddha carved into a large rock. I went up to investigate, and found a dark little cave next to it, with flickering candles inside. It would have been cool to look inside, but I'm sure there was some hermetic monk in there who didn't want to be disturbed by a curious foreigner. So I kept going down.
I bought my flight home! I found a really cheap deal from Tokyo to St. Louis that I went for, and got reimbursed. While I've had a few disagreements with my employer, my experience has generally been good enough that I'd like to save them a little money. So I get home the night before Thanksgiving! I have to say, I'm way excited about that, my week in Tokyo, and my two weeks in Australia.
Every time I go out lately, I'm struck anew by how much I love Busan. It's a really great city, and I couldn't have picked a better place to spend a year in Korea. If anyone else is heading this way, I'd recommend it to any kind of person. I'll miss it, and I'll always love it, even though my opinion of Korea in general isn't always the highest. I'll leave with warm, fuzzy feelings.
When I get home, I will need a job. And a car. And a cell phone. Once I have those, I'll be looking into getting an apartment. Possibly with a roommate. And a new computer. Looking farther out, I think a place in the country where I can have a fish pond, goats, chickens, and a horse would be fun (with a dog and the rest of my potential animal collection). But we'll see about that, I'm still working out what I really want out of life. Too bad I don't have an undiscovered wealthy relative who will leave me lots of money... Most of my family lives comfortably, but nobody's really rich. And marrying into money isn't looking too promising either. Alas! I think a lot about the future. I enjoy the present, but I really do live in the future.