I LIVE for the weekend.

Not that I don't enjoy teaching,..my kids are great and I'm really liking my co-teachers...but weekends are the real reason for my happiness over here. This weekend Carol, Vanessa and I ventured around downtown Gwangju yet again...this place never gets old. We had a number of errands we wanted to do..(when i say errands i don't mean anything too important). Lunch, shopping for new glasses, scouting out a good manicure/pedicure salon, and finding Carol a new pair of cheap movie star sunglasses.

Anyway, we found ourselves in little hole in the wall nail shop. Just to remind you..prior to my life in Korea, i had considered manicures to be the most ridiculous thing to waste your money on. Well, times have changed and i realize what it feels like to treat yourself and be girly. I LOVE THEM. This particular day i thought I'd try, for the first time, a pedicure. The shop was really cool, clean and modern with bright green walls and white furniture. The pedicure stations consisted of huge leather lazy boy chairs with a whirl pool foot tub in front..nice! You might find this kind of strange..but the "pedicurist" tending to me was a man. A really handsome..manly Korean man..crazy. This is something you would NEVER see in North America. Gad, i love this country.

Sunday was even more enjoyable. Carol and I participated in a Breast Cancer "marathon" and i use that term lightly..there was 5km and 10km run. Well, you know me..i only run if my life depends on it. So i wasn't too confident about running period. However, when the fireworks blasted and the sea of pink shirts and hats began to move..i felt exhilarated. We ran probably 90 percent of the course with a few short walking breaks to catch our breath in the heat and smog. We finished the course by running into the World Cup Soccer stadium and rounding the track..SO COOL, and then through a finish line with cameras flashing and cheers ..it was soo much fun. I was tired...but not exhausted..and then next day..i feel a little tight but otherwise great. I can't believe...number one..that i ran 5 km. and number 2..that I'm interested in doing it again. Thanks Carol and Jessica for the encouragement.




We ended our fantastic Sunday with a trip to our favorite musician's house, Matt, where we met his mom who is visiting from Canada. There was a small crowd there and lots of great conversations. Then we filed into cabs and were off to some kind of small festival to watch Matt and Darren (Bikido) perform on stage. Like always they were great. We also got to see some kids performing acrobatics and some traditional music etc. What a great day!

Life is Good.

This past week I realized that i spend way too much money on cabs to and from school. So I started taking the bus half way and walking the second half (in the morning). I have to walk along a really interesting bustling street. There are a fury of old women preparing their items to sell under a colourful display of umbrellas and canopies. The smell is breathtaking...literally. Each vendor is selling sea food..and this is not the sea food we know from home. Skate, sea squirt, sea cucumber, skate and fish large and small. EVERYONE stares at me as I walk through their stalls on my way to school but i don't care..it is soo fun to see what they have writhing in buckets along the sidewalk. It really makes my day. It's SO much more interesting than taking a taxi.

On Tuesday of last week I also walked home..(different route). On my way I happened to notice an outdoor store and thought I'd take a peek. As soon as i walked in, the owner jumped up and ran over to greet me. He saw that I was browsing in the clothing and probably thought to himself..."A WAYGOOK...Dammit..she thinks she might fit into clothes here..how do i break it to her?" Well he proceeded to "squish" my arm as he asked me where i was from and what my name was in broken English. (I guess i look squishy..lol) Then he held up different shirts to me to see if they would be the appropriate size...

When I was on my way out the door, I said goodbye in Korean and was down the sidewalk...only to be beckoned back into the store and further "squished"..
He sat me down at a table with a Korean woman decked out in Hiking garb. He offered me tea and coffee and then handed me his business cards...we "chatted/played charades" for a few minutes discussing hiking and which mountains I'd hiked in Korea. This made him very happy. He then wrote a letter to me (in Korean)..which i think was outlining a "Hiking Club" that he runs from his store and that i should join it. All in all i was there for about 1/2 an hour before i finished my tea..gave the celebrity handshake and wave and continued home. Some days i get so sick of feeling like an amusement park attraction...but others i just love the kindness that people here show you and of course the interest in someone "different" from them..squishy in fact.

Photo Challenge

A good friend of mine here in Korea, Stu, thought it would be fun to set up a biweekly photography challenge for whoever wanted to join. Every two weeks he sets up a few tasks..things you must capture on film or digitally, then post them to a website. A winning photo is then chosen. Just for fun. What a great idea. We all have cameras and we all have a little free time on our hands...so...photo challenge.(Thanks Stu!) I love that people are always creating small activities or events to keep busy. If it wasn't for these mini activities I think I would have gone home months ago. Keeping busy, keeps me happy and really makes my stay here so much more enjoyable. This coming weekend we will be renting a van or bus to tour the country side and take photos. For me, it's a chance to try to figure out how to use my SLR once again after it was locked up for so long in a case. During our little outing we are going to stop by another city to visit some other foreign teachers who are hosting a bbq. More food, more drinking, how can life get any better than that.
Here are some of the photos from this week's challenge. Three of the tasks were..a stranger wearing a hat, a small dog and green.

Distance and Change

Being away from home for 1, 2, 3+ years. Living in a foreign country so far from a familiar culture. How much does it change us? I wonder about this when I think about heading home this summer. Will I be different? Will my friends and family notice any changes in me. I think we are all changing constantly. Hopefully for the better. The more we see, learn and experience, the more we can expand our way of thinking. But do we change faster when living this type of lifestyle than those at home? What affect does this have on our relationships when we return. I think about this sometimes. However, i don't worry too much as a year is not a long time in the whole scheme of things. I'll be interested to hear from my close friends what they think once i've been home for a while. Will my dog look at me differently..especially if he finds out that I lived in culture where eating dog is accepted practice? He'll know...he always does.