Sore Mind

My mind is numb from sitting at work doing nothing.  You see....most people dream of such a job.  Well, it isn't a job at all.  I am treated like a after-thought at best, which I have grown to enjoy a bit.  It used to get on my nerves.  I've come to expect it.  I sit there and try my best to include the others in my daily life and whatever.  It is just hard when they are kind of too shy to even talk to me.  I don't care how well or bad somebody speaks English as long as I can communicate with them.  It takes a good long time, but whatever.  It don't bother me because mostly I'm bored clear out of my mind.

Everything here is just a bit harder than it needs to be.  I tried to do a bit of work here at home and I realized that I ain't got the right word processor.  My laptop from the US cannot read 'Hangul' which is the Korean letter system.  Now I'll drag myself out to a PC room and pay to do work that I forgot to do at work because it is so rare that I actually have to do anything.  I know that it don't seem right, but you have to remember that my mind has went numb.

I have a funny student who is in 2nd grade middle school here which would be 8th grade back home.  One day as I was walking down the freezing hallway he stopped me to ask me about Jesus.  He pointed to his heart and to mine and just kept saying Jesus and then giving a thumbs up.  It was really funny.  Then I seen him cleaning the wall for a few  hours a couple weeks after.  I ask him what he was doing and he didn't want to even try and explain.  I asked him in my limited Korean if he smokes and he said no.  I knew that is the reason why he was cleaning the wall.  First he told me no and that his clothes only smelled like it and then I bothered him and explained why it is not a good idea to do that.  By the end, we were laughing which is sort of cool.

I've went totally crazy this week because of the fact that I've needed to renew my passport.  I used the courier system that the embassy suggested.  The idiots picked up my mail and didn't give a tracking number  or a receipt.  Of course, they didn't come on time so I wadn't there on Saturday morning when the showed up.  I give the company a call and tried to speak 'English' the person there who speaks 'English'.  They didn't want to talk to me much cuz my co-teacher had set it all up.  What a joke!! My co-teacher is 'too busy' to follow up on my personal stuff, but it was in her name and she speaks Korean.  So, for a week I looked for my passport by any means possible without a tracking number.  The idiots finally give  me a tracking number 15 hours before they delivered it to the embassy which was ever bit of 5 days too late.  So yes, my mind is numb from all of this.

Nepal!!!!!

I like to do things in a kind of routine.  My friends here tell me that I am very scheduled.  I have to be.  It's too much going on all of the time.  I get my week planned out a week before it comes.  This week, every single hour is pretty much planned out for me.  I had to ask for 'early leaves' today in order to head off to the bank tomorrow.  It is something that is difficult to ask for.  I only get eight hours a year for this sort of thing.  I will send a small chunk of money back to the homestead and get my long awaited American check for my passport renewal.  They ain't no other time to do it, and they's very limited time before my next work visa must be done.  Time has flew so fast here this year.  I ain't never had a more faster year in my whole life.  It seems like every week is like me climbing a mountain in Nepal just trying to get it all done.

I've been lucky enough to find a nice Indian restaurant that is only a block from my house.  You gotta understand that this is Korea, so they ain't many places like this here.  The owners are from Nepal.  It is an interesting place.  He speaks rather good Korean, but his English ain't the best.  His wife don't speak English or Korean which makes for some funny conversations.  I bought some hand made gloves off of her that were made in Nepal for a gift.  It cost me about $2.  That's crazy!  I go there about 2x a week for some chicken and some rice.  It is pretty good.  I go when I ain't go the energy to cook.  It's so many weird/odd things there.  The owner has 3 front teeth.  I guess he has some weird 3rd tooth in between his main ones.  It cracks up my friends that goes there too.  Today I treated 3 of my friends to a free dinner using my club card filled with 30 stamps.  Then they took our picture cuz I'z the first to redeem my card.  I guess that it's another teacher who has 3 full cards who ain't brung in a party of 4 to get his $65 dollar meal for free.  The little Nepal place is quite an interesting place.  Oh.. I almost forgot to tell you that sometimes the owner wears this random pearl earring.  It is so funny! LOL!

I guess my readership is pretty much higher in Europe than it is in the US or in Korea.  I find that odd.  I guess now that I've wrote about Nepal that it might could start in Nepal too.  Who knows?  I'm surprised that they's people that reads my blog all over the world about my crazy random life over here in my loft house on the 10th floor in the city of Incheon, South Korea.  Nepal would be a cool place to visit.  I know someone who went there on a mission trip to tell people about the love of Jesus for the first time.  I guess they told them about how Jesus was born in a barn, lived a perfect life, died for everyone's sins and then rose from the grave to prove that he is God.  They did this while living beside of a river and using it to cool their food in a cooler.  Maybe I should go there some day and see if they still remember my friend who told them all of this for the first time.  That would be super interesting.

Way Too Much

They's way too much going on in the world.  It's too much crazy stuff that I am totally unable to wrap my head around.  So many people are so content to just hate and do terrible things to each other.  How exactly does people get to that point that they think that they are doing good by hurting people?  I have a friend that was raised in a 'Christian' home, yet her father won't talk to her sister because she got her a tattoo.  I'm pretty sure that the only reason she done that is to prove that she ain't under the father's authority.  Of course, this girl is ever bit of 25 years old and ain't lived at home in years.  Then again, a Muslim guy told me that it is okay for him to kill me because I do not respect the teachings of his 'prophet'.  How do you hate like that?  This is blind hate and the other hates way too much for more personal reasons.  Why the hate?

They ain't too many people that goes to my church here in Incheon.  It might be 60 tops.  I remember when I first came people were not too close.  They never wanted to spend time together and didn't give a rip if they seen each other at church.  You can forget thinking about seeing each other outside of church.  We've growed much closer, yet there is still some sort of uneasy feeling among some of them.  I can't place it, but it is there.  At least there is not so much desire to run out of the door after the service.  There's way too much work that needs done in Korea.  Too much bad stuff in your face all of the time and too much bowing to show how kind they are.  It is a crazy mix here.  Too much kindness and too much sickness.

I've had way too much fun here and way too many blessings.  I miss things, but it's too much going on here that is good for me.  I keep wondering why I have been sent here to work and live this random life.  I suppose most lives are random, but not like this.  I have a job where I sit way too much and teach way too little and get paid too much to do mostly nothing.  I am a puppet.  Why am I a puppet?  I am the token white guy.  I don't mind because it is okay.  I knowed it before I came.  It's okay.  It's just way too much to process.  My friends here are way too kind.  They somehow know exactly what I am thinking all of the time.  Sometimes they know way too much.  I hope that the guy that told me that it was okay to kill me knows way too much about how I don't want him to die.  Wow.. I wrote way too much about way too many random things.  I guess that means that I am random.  Who knows?

Happy Thanksgiving

It's a cool crisp day here in Korea.  The sun's a shinin' and the wind is softly blowing.  Today is the day of my church Thanksgiving Day meal.  I have so much to be excited about and so much that I am just amazed about.  This has been one of the most crazy months of my life.  I've been told that I have five different skin conditions.  One of them was a very serious one.  I've visited one of the biggest hospitals in the country three times along with the biggest one in my city.  We are talking about an area with about 25 million people.  So, these hospitals are supposed to be the best that they have.  I was given 8 pills a day and cream to put on my skin.  I became a pill junkster.  I went in there and told them that I ain't taking them pills no more unless they give me some proof of what it is and why.  I refused to continue.  I was thankful when I stopped.  What a relief.  I am thankful that 90% of my skin issues are gone.  Really thankful!

One month ago I went to an interview for a dream job.  This is the kind of job that you don't even really even dream of.  It is just right crazy.  I traveled for 2 hours by bus with a friend to the interview in a suit with my name inside of it.  I arrived a bit early.  I was going to give it my all and that is what I done.  I practiced with a friend a week earlier and I give the best answers that I could figure out.  They was 4 English teachers and they was one Korean dean or something. She never did crack a smile for the whole 30 minutes.  It was only 5 questions with a few follow up ones.  They wadn't even one weird question.  I answered them all and got up to shake their hands.  It was so awkward leaning over a U-shaped table.  I was suddenly nervous at the end. I walked out of the room and make a sharp right turn.  I had went the wrong way.  I instantly felt so dumb.  I didn't even know how to leave that office.

The next weekend was filled with waiting and wondering.  They had another full day of interviews to do for that job.  I felt as if their was a chance in hell that I'd get the job.  This job is like getting a job at Harvard back home.  The people who graduate from this university goes on to make lots of money and have top jobs all over the world.  It is nuts!!  So, I just kept waitin'.  I waited for one more week and I got an e-mail from them at 4pm the same day that they promised a response.  I opened it and it said, thank you for your interest in the position... bla bla bla.  I was not surprised.  I was just so happy to have got the interview.  It was awesome.  I was content with it.  How cool!

I asked my school to renew me.  I had hopes of moving on to university, but at that point I knew that I wasn't gonna get it.  They said yes after some talking among theirselves.  I wasn't excited about it, but it was a job. Then a few days ago I got a call.  I looked down at my phone in the office and answered.  It was an unknown    
Korean number.  Usually they call and insist that I speak Korean and call back 2 or 3 times thinking it is a joke that a foreigner answered the phone in Korea.   It was the dean of the highest ranking school in the country.  She asked in the most formal way possible if I was who answered the phone.  I thought she was going to suggest that I apply somewhere else.  She offered me the job.  I run into the other room so the others around me wouldn't have a idea what was going on.  I liketa fell on the ground.  No joke.  I hung up and went and sit on my chair in my office.  I wanted so bad to tell somebody, but they wadn't nobody there I could share it with.  I was stuck for four hours caught in a kind of shell wanting to explode.

I give it a day or two and I found out that my official renewal papers had come to my school.  I had to drop the bomb.  So, I tried my best to make it early.  I overslept that morning, so I had to run to school.  I got there and run down and told one of my co-teachers.  She was shocked and happy beyond belief.  It is just unheard of for a random dude from another country to waltz in there for one year and land a job at that university.  I told my main co-teacher and there was a hint of anger or annoyance or everwhat it was.  I ain't sure.  I don't care.  I was excited so I called two of my most coolest friends and told them that I wanted to buy them dinner to celebrate.  My friend showed up with a funny cake with 5 candles and we eat some Indian food and then some cake.  Life is just crazy.  You can't predict it and that is what I am thankful for.  Just thankful.  I will eat some turkey today and just be thankful.

Just Want to Sleep

Today I wanted to sleep more than anyone could imagine.  I worked all day at a job that is far from hard in most ways, but it drains your soul in other ways.  I don't never know what is going on, even when I try.  I've give up having that under my belt.  I just sit there and wait for information that I know ain't never going to come.  I do what needs done and don't do what don't need done.  In this land, making it look as if you got tons to do is so important.  But..., they ain't nothing to do.  They's nothing I can do about that.  I've planned most all of what needs planned for the rest of the entire year.  No joke.

I was tired, so I went to a restaurant that serves Indian food.  The owner is from Nepal.  This is very strange in Korea.  I was too tired to cook today, so I spent 10 bucks on some chicken and rice.   I could have come home and cooked, but today was my late day at work.  I was just tired.  I wanted to sleep like nobody knows.  Just as I was finishing my food, my phone rung.  It was one of the golden 10 who came to Korea with me.  He works with my former coworker who I used to know way back when.

He let me know that my friend who was pregnant and sick 5 years ago when I was in Korea is again in the same boat.  He works with her this time.  How crazy is that?  She is one of those people who know from the first time you meet them, that it is almost impossible to not keep in contact with them for the rest of your life.  It is just way out of control.  My friend who works with her now said that to me about 2 weeks after he met her for the first time.  So, we drug ourselves to a hospital on the other side of town to see our friend.  Her 6 year old kid was waiting for us there.  He gets so excited because he has 'foreign' friends. It is quite funny to see.  So, after being so tired, I forced myself to go and see my friend.  It was well worth it.  The family was funny and our mutual friend made it all the more crazy funny.  Living here is just so random and many times it makes you so so so tired.  Despite being tired, it was all worth it.

Knowing the Future

I've always wanted to be able to know the future.  I like to plan and I like to try to do this and that.  I have right close to every day planned out for a week in advance.  Most of the time, I end up doing most of the things that I have planned.  However, I think I've passed into being anxious about the future at times.  I know that they ain't nothing that I can do to change the future.  Many of the times, there is almost nothing that I can do to even control my life in even the smallest way.  The lucky thing is that I am finally getting to the point again that I realize that I ain't in control of my path.  I walk the path, but my steps are on the ground ahead of me as I walk.  I just put my foot right in the print.  Sometimes, I ain't smart enough to realize that I have misstepped.  Who knows? I don't... that's for sure.

I come to Korea with 300 teachers.  We done orientation together and went off to our schools all over the 'Land of the Morning Calm'.  All of the areas have told their teachers if they gonna stay for next year.  I mean, most of the people have signed the contracts and done the blood tests.  We have to get AIDS tests cuz the are a-scared that we foreigners might could have the bug.  So, there I sit in my school just thinking about how my city was the last of the cities to send out the renewal papers.  I emailed the main office and they give me the news that the papers would be sent out by the end of this month.  Despite all of this, I asked my co-teacher if she knew what would happen.  I figure that they must know if they gonna keep me after 2/3 of the year.  They talked it over and finally told me that I am gonna stay.  Well, that's the word now.  Let's see what next month brings.

I'd like to go home for the holiday, but I get 4 weeks vacation in summer, so I plan on doing that.  That means that I'll be here and I won't be a doin' much over the Christmas break.  I hope that the holiday is not so bad.  I 'member that the last time I was here during that time  

Sex Slave

So, my church had a screening of a film called Nefarious.  It documented how girls get picked up off of the streets or sold to the sex trade industry in many places.   I guess South Koreans are the most frequent people who are sold into the sex industry in the US.  I saw how people in Cambodia often sell their girls.  How does people treat their kids as property?  I just don't get it.

I guess these girls just get used to feeling as if they are worthless and without hope.  So, if someone offers them another option, they rarely accept it.  If they do accept the new option, 90% or more return to the industry within a year.  The whole thing was just creepy to me.  It give me chills.  Either seeing no other option or wanting to go back to beatings and rapes rather than confront the cold hard facts.  This ain't cool.  Wow..  It just made me sick to watch.

Where there is legal activity going on, you can be sure that there is illegal activity going on as well.  Why does a legal industry publish safety ideas for their workers if it has truly made their work any more safer? I just feel that we need to be more vocal for human rights about this. Sweden has almost got rid of the industry because they decided that they have to do it to provide equal rights for men and women.  How much more do believers have responsibility to tackle this evil industry.

F-hole

I used to go to this cafe about 5 times a week named 'F-hole'.  Don't get no nasty thoughts in your mind.  The owner didn't speak English, but he was a music major in university.  He had a dream to open a cafe and he did just that.  He named it after the pattern on a violin.  He had no idea until we foreigners started to frequent his awesome little shop.  Well, them days are gone.  The little cafe with real ham sandwiches is long gone.  One of my favorite things is gone.  I loved it because he'd play exactly the kind of music that I like and I could call him and place my order then show up and it would be all ready.

They's this new place that my friends have started going to.  It's called 'Beyond'.  It ain't no F-hole.  The drinks are terrible and the prices are high.  We had singings there and some people used to read poetry.  Most of the people would read some serious funny things that they had wrote, but others just sit there and listened.  It was so chill.  Wednesday nights ain't the same no more.  The F-hole sort of moved on to 'Beyond', but it is beyond lame at 'Beyond'.

So, they's sort of a bit of a hole in my schedule.  I've filled it with Korean lessons with a friend, but I kind of miss getting out of the Korean feeling and meeting up with some of my international friends.  It's people from just about every English speaking country that you can think of and many of them are pretty funny.  I miss it.

What is it?

I've growed angry at this point.  They ain't a doctor in the world that can explain what is going on.  Well, let me rephrase that.  Every one of the 5 that I've went to has told me what I have.  The problem is that each and every one has told me something different.  I've followed what they've said, and it ain't made a bit of difference.  What's up with that??

I've decided that they's worse things in the world to have other than spots here and there all over my body that comes and goes.  I feel great, and I go to the gym and do whatever I want there.  I don't feel sick.  I need to be be thankful for that and not pay no mind to the doctors on some level.  If they's been 5 doctors and 5 ideas, either 4 or 5 have been wrong.  I can't focus on any of that.  I just keep thinking of all the good things rather than the annoying bad!

Korea is a place of conforming.  You must conform or else.  I sometimes have a few spots on my hands.  The people here on the subways looks at you like you have some serious disease on public transportation.  What is a good man gonna do?  LOL

Spit

It's many things that are annoying here.  I met up with some friends for a costume party yesterday.  I didn't dress up because I find it odd to gather in a small house and sit around with several other professionals and wear odd clothes.  I'm sorry, but I've growed out of that.  I just don't see myself doing it ever again.  Perhaps, but not in Korea.  They's too many other weird things around me.  I don't wanna dress up weird.

We got to talking about how some things here are just so odd.  The most common thing that people brung up was spitting.  Guys and sometimes even girls in miniskirts decide that they want to spit.  I mean..., they just spit everwhere they want.  They have no care in the world.  It is strange to be sitting in a restaurant and have someone just spit on the floor next to you.  Then you look up at them and they are dressed up in their Sunday best.  One has to wonder.

I find the several puke piles at the ground on the way to work more annoying.  I'm rather tired of the morning and I don't wanna pay attention.  So, if I ain't a lookin' out, I find myself with a few chunks at the bottom of my shoes.  Nasty!  I druther have a few spit spots than a few piles of puke.  It is out of control.  One time I saw a guy sleeping in his suit outside my house.  He just slept there after a night out on the town and then turned around and went off to work.  How crazy is that?

Then they's this line of women in their 40s or 50s that works at a make-up shop.  They line up at morning time and bow all together at the 8 lanes of traffic that pass.  I've learnt to pass behind them.  It is so funny to me.  you should see them look out of the corner of their eyes as they see a foreigner approach and walk up to what is just beside of them.  They bow like robots.  I wonder if some of them spit as they bow sometimes. So, needless to say, walking to work can be interesting.

Pre-Christmas Blues

I hate that I am not going to be at 'home' for Christmas.  Christmas will be on a Sunday this year.  Crazy enough it come on the same day the last time I was in Korea.  I hated that day.  It was one of the worst days in my life.  I just sit in my house all day doing nothing.  Christmas is almost nothing here in Korea even though there are more people that practices Christianity than anything else.  Weird.

I found out today that I will not be able to travel back 'home' for the holiday.  I just listened as my co-teacher told me the news.  It give me a different feeling on the inside.  I dread missing Christmas without certain people.  Of course, there will be others here too, but no Christmas party at my house.  I do not like that.  My house is far too small for a X-mas party.  I have 2 chairs and some steps to sit on.  They just ain't no room for a party here.  There will be no church filled with people singing Christmas songs either.   I like Christmas songs.  Some are dumb, but I can handle even dumb ones just because it is somehow related to my most favorite day of the year.

Funny Things Today

I had a relaxed day at work today.  It was just a normal school day.  However, some of the students are just so funny in Korea.  It was one who come to my office to remind me that I was going to his class today.  I go to each class about once every 2 or 3 weeks.  Sometimes it is longer in between each visit.  I opened the double doors and shook his hand and his friend was on all fours on the floor.  His friend reached around and grabbed on to my ankle as a joke.  I went to laughing so hard.  These kids are 15 years old!  Are you serious?

I come home and took me a good ole' nap.  I need to take those these days.  They ain't no way around it.  I take too many pills.  They make me tired, but I power through it and go to the gym.  I refuse to not go.  While leaving the gym I saw a Canadian guy who goes there too.  He asked me about costumes which was fairly random.  I don't know the first thing about them.  I guess that since I speak English he assumed that I must know about costumes too.  Just then, one of my students, who I didn't recognize, rolled up on his bike and said, "Teacher, how are you?  I go to the house."  Then he shook my hand and rolled off.  Korea is so random.  It was funny.  As he rolled off, the Canadian guy said, "I go to the house too!"  Ha!

I met with my language exchange partner today.  It was pretty funny as always.  I eat some 'pat-bing-su' which is shaved ice with sweet milk, red beans, fruit cocktail and ice cream on top.  I eat it all myself.  We talked about everything going on in our lives.  It is a super fun time.

The More I Write

I suppose that the more that I write, the more people reads my posts.  I can't believe there there's people that reads my blog from all over the world.  It ain't like they have stumbled upon my blog just once, but they've kept coming back for more.  I've went through a long spell of not writing too much, but I will make a better effort to keep up with it.  It's for me and it is for others.  Iran, Israel, Korea, USA, France, Netherlands and who knows where else are all places that have frequent visitors to my cold hard blog.  Keep coming back for more!

The more I write, the more I realize that there's plenty that happens over in Korea.  I went to a hospital today and got a boil removed for free because I ain't from here.  I can't think of no other reason why they done that for me. They give me plenty more pills for the other skin things that have been going on with me.  I feel great, so I ain't complaining.  Just as long as they ain't more annoying things around the corner.  I'll keep writing if I am able.

Sometimes, I start to missin' home and things about home more than I should.  It is when I have to go to the doctor or the bank that these feelings show up so clearly.  I don't wanna leave this place, but who knows what is around the corner.  It might could be the end or just the start of a not so cold hard life over here.  My friend was telling me that he feels as if they pay him to be on vacation.  I feel that way sometimes too.  It sure ain't hard to work here.  It is far from that.  Work ain't hard at all.  The more I write, the more I know this to be true.

Taking the subway here is a joy as long as you observe the random things that go on around you.  Today a well dressed 20 something 'homeless' person was worming along the center of the subway today begging for money.  I guess he went and bought him some new shoes and a shirt the last time he done his collection.  Ah.. Korea offers so much if you just pay attention.  I asked a random person about the water shut-off that is coming up at my house.  I couldn't read the sign, so I asked.  The guy was so happy to tell me what the sign said.  These kinds of openly polite people are so not common where I am from.  The people back home would answer, but not happily and with pure joy.  These are some of the things here that are just awesome.  The more that I write, more comes to my mind.... so... that's all for now.

Crazy Culcom and Cats

I ain't really wrote about Culcom.  It is a language exchange business that I like to visit once a week.  I used to go two times a week when I first got here.  Many of my foreign friends go there too, so it is a good chance to get out of the bubble of Korean life.  Koreans pay money to be our friends which ain't cool, but they are cool.  It takes a certain kind of person to be willing to pay money to have foreigners (English speakers) be in a kind of study group with them.  We don't really study.  It is more like a guided conversation about a topic.

I went the first time and they give me a language exchange partner.  Her name is Li-ra.  She is right cool and lots of fun.  She paid for a few months and then we decided to meet outside so she didn't have to pay to be my friend.  Now we meet a couple times a week and either hang out or pretend to study.  It ain't for real.  We just sit and talk most of the time.  We share our trials and problems, so it is good to have a person to help in this land of confusion.  We are a kind of cultural informant for each other.  It is usually funny.  We laugh that it is okay to slurp on your straw when they ain't much left at the bottom of the cup in Korea, but my mom used to knock me upside the head if I'd do that back home.   It is pretty funny.  They's plenty of funny things that happens when we hang out.  We even had a funny conversation about spam last week.  I guess Koreans thinks it is good food since American soldiers used to eat it during the war.  Her foreign friend in Canada ask her why she was eating cat food, so we laugh about that.

They's a cat at Culcom sometimes.  I ain't a friend to many cats, but my friend Justin loves animals and children as well as old people.  I love old people and some funny children, but not cats.  He is sometimes so distracted during the conversation time and he plays with the dumb cat.  It makes me laugh pretty hard.  Tonight, the cat wadn't there.  I have no idea where it was.  However, a Korean member of our group asked me to be his language exchange partner because he has been attending for a long time and ain't had one yet.  I told him that I am far too busy, but we could hang out sometime.  He suggested that he buy me Smootie King.  I was tired, but I couldn't go home with the offer of a free drink at my favorite beverage joint.  So, I give in and went.  He was excited to tell me about how he is in the middle of making fuel efficient cars.  So, more or less, I just sit there and listened to him talk about random stuff.   It was still amusing.  He paid and wouldn't even allow me to hold the call thingy that rings and flashes when the order is ready.  Ah.. Koreans are funny!

Crazy

I haven't wrote on here in a while again.  Life has been crazy.  I mean crazy.  Things are so difficult here sometimes.  I suppose that I have a love/hate relationship with Korea at this time.  There are so many good things, yet there are so many things that are difficult at best.  When I talk to my friends here, it seems that most of them think the same way.  I ain't able to sit here and define what is good or bad, but I feel like it is finally time to sit down and put it into writing.  They ain't much more I can do cuz having the same conversations with my 'foreign' friends here don't help much.  They almost always say that they agree and offer up some random difficult situation or some somewhat funny situation that they've had to deal with.

I've been dealing with some sort of skin issues for the past month or so.  I got these red spots that show up and stick around for a week or two. Then, just as I start to feelin' better or looking better more pops up some place else.  It is quite annoying.  I called off school one day cuz my skin went nuts and the school acted as if I done something really bad.  As if I want this stuff on me?  To make it worse, I feel mostly good.  I go to the gym and have been feeling right close to normal.  I just have spots on me.  Korea is a country that focuses on outer appearance more than you could imagine, so it is not easy.  I went to two doctors that give me a blank look and give me come cream.  I knew that it was more than just a problem that needed cream.  Luckily, I have people that prays for me and gives me advice or I'd have no idea where to turn next here.  Health care is not easy in a country that refuses to accept that people need to visit a doctor at least once a year during work hours.  It is hard to fully understand the complexity of this issue.  Errr.

I had to work on Saturday which was a blessing and a curse.  I got extra money and since I ain't got much left over from my pay from last month, it ain't been easy.  Health issues cost money.  It's hard to get around that.  I worked an English festival.  They was about 15 native English teachers who helped too.  There were speeches, essay contests and many games.  It was a long day followed by a long dinner with about 25 people.  The food was very Korean.  During supper, a really cool girl from East Canada mentioned that life here is like a movie and a dream.  It don't have to be a good movie or a great dream, but it is a mix of the two.  Things happen that are just amazing or crazy on a daily basis.  I saw a lady selling bunnies at the subway station today if that gives you and idea.  The day was so mixed with worry about skin, funny essays, great conversations with random teachers from around the world and sittin' at the floor eating tofu and b-que pork.

I applied to a dream job and got an interview.  So, I took the subway to the center of 'foreign' Korea in order to get a suit tailored.  It cost me an arm and a leg, but this is Korea and how you look often means more than what you can do.  I have this week to get ready for this interview.  It is the kind of interview that usually comes once in a life, so I have to do my best.  This week will be filled with prep for it.  They ain't no way around it.  I got to do it.  So, life trucks along here.  There is so much uncertain with my job and with my health, but it keeps a truckin!

More Updates!

So, I have decided to be more dedicated to this blog.   It is for myself as much as it is for whoever wants to read I suppose.  I ain't been writing much lately.  It ain't from a lack of stuff going on.  They's more going on here than one could imagine.  I had a nice day at work.  We had our staff photo today.  I stood on a desk in the middle of the soccer field for the photo among all of my coworkers.  It wasn't the most normalest of situations.  Even the newest coworker that just got hired thought that it was right weird.  I came home and took me a awesome nap and headed off to the Nepal restaurant down the road with a neighbor.  I had the standard chicken tikka with some Korean rice for about 9 bucks.  Not bad!

I've been pretty regular about going to the gym.  I ain't missed too many days.  I've become a bit more disciplined recently, but they's plenty of room to improve.  I am far from being good.  I've tried to do 5 days of Bible reading 5 days a week and I have failed by 15 or 30 minutes every week.  I am at least trying.  That is better than before I suppose.  Couple all of that stuff with language exchange 2 times per week and hanging out with ever the heck who wants to at random times leaves me pretty busy.  Busy is good to a point, but when you have these personal things that you 'have to do', it gets pretty darn annoying.  

Next week is a holiday in Korea.  My language exchange partner is hosting some of the jazz singers for the festival.  Korea does festivals unlike no place else.  She will make sure that they eat and are able to get around well while they are here for the festival.  I guess that they are famous, but I ain't got no idea about jazz except that I got a free ticket and my friend will be going with me too.  Funny times are sure to be around the corner.  We always have random experiences.  So, while Koreans remember that God created Korea as the center of the universe or something like that, I'll be at a jazz festival.  I wish they had a country festival.  I'd be there so fast!

I am getting used to this new updated blog. So it tells me who visits my page the most and how many hits per day I have. It is quite interesting that anyone at all reads about my random life. I have a friend from Chicago who tells me that I am the most random person that he has ever met. I think he's pretty random. He rides a motorbike in Korea and attended 4 churches every Sunday for months until he settled on one or two. He has lived in Korea for 3 years and he knows only 10 words in Korean. He refuses to eat Korean food. I'm sure that he won't eat dog. I did for the 2nd time and it was might good.

Just a little post today because I posted a post that was empty and I figured that I'd put something in here. The empty blog had 5 hits. LOL!

Speed

I feel as if I been I speed recently.  Life has been a truckin' so fast that I can barely keep track of it.  Vacation over Korean Thanksgiving was amazing.  My job seems to be going a bit better, but the day speeds by there too.  I ain't sure where the time goes.  My church has become an amazing place.  This of course takes more time that I don't really have.  It is one of those things that just must be done.  I have to try and take the speed subway train to get there faster, cuz Sundays are among the most fastest days of the week.  Of course, I been trying to go to the gym too along with Korean lessons and lesson planning.  This and the people makes my head spin.  Too much to do and too far to travel to see this person and that person and to do this and to do that.

I feel bad that I ain't wrote.  I could write a book over here.  I decided today that too much time has went by and that I must write more.  I wonder if this is just me dreaming of doing better.  This has been a theme for me here.  I want to be better at everything.  I want my Korean to improve and that ain't workin out too well.  I want to be better about reading the Bible and that has worked pretty well.  However, I am in this competition at church.  They give me the job of score-keeper.  They give me a list of names of people that I ain't hardly never met.  I have to keep track of how well they've done and listen to their verses.  It's getting better.  I guess I got the list, so I need to learn their names.  I missed one day of reading for 30 minutes, so my team lost one point.  I had no idea that the program was so strict.  I am the score keeper!! I felt bad for my team.  Perhaps, I will be a cookin' the American Thanksgiving.  I imagine that!!!

So I went on the most randomest trip that I have ever been on during Chu-sok.  This is Korean Thanksgiving.    It is the day that traditional Koreans pray to their dead relatives and cook them food.  It is weird for me.  I just don't know what to say.  Kids bow to older family members and they get money.  It is just an odd thing.  I ask my main co-worker what she done for the holiday and she told me, "I don't pray to dead people. I believe in God."

I went with my American friend Justin on vacation for 5 days.  We simply jumped on the subway in Incheon and took it 1 hour to Seoul Station in the capital.  We had no idea where we was goin.  We went up to the ticket counter and said, "Two tickets to anywhere in Korea!"  She looked at us and laughed.  We knew it would be difficult.  We were told that we couldn't go because it is 'too busy'.  We had a plan to do whatever it took to get there and back.  She sold us a ticket to a city that neither of us had ever heard of.  Asan!  We didn't realize that she sold us a ticket on a high speed train to a city that is connected to the capital on the regular subway.  So.. we took the train and went.  Of course, we did!

Once in Asan, we ask just about everyone we could in broken Korean where this was and where that was.  We found our way to a cafeteria filled with doctors in training.  This was some kind of university for doctors I suppose.  I walked up to the counter and asked, "How much is it?"  He said $2!! We were thrilled.  We had somehow scored some standing room only tickets on the high speed train to Busan.  That is the 2nd biggest capital at the bottom of the country.  They's palm trees there and a world famous beach.  We took the train in the morning and rolled on in at 200 kilometers per hour.

Once we got there, we met up with Justin's friend from high school and 6 others.  We went to a huge fish market on the sea and picked us some fish.  They told us to go upstairs and sit down and they brought us our fish on a platter.  The fish come out on a platter with eyes and all.  Justin's friend is Cambodian, so he eat ever part of the fish except the eyes.  Brains and all!! We walked around in the rain and by the end of the day we went to stinkin' of wet dog.  We jumped in a taxi so we could go and find a place to stay.  We smelled of nasty wet dog from the heat mixed with sweat and nasty food.  It was terrible.  Once we got to the area, we found a dynamic university area filled to the max with people.  It was crazy!!  We found us a place to stay after asking tons of people in Korean where to go and whatever.  It was a night on speed!

Thanksgiving day came and we rocked it out by walking around the 2nd biggest city in the country with almost nobody around.  It was nice.  At night the people come out of the woodwork again.  We had some Korean chicken with cabbage and rice cake mixed with red hot pepper sauce and Korea's most popular drink called so-ju.  Wow!  It was just the first stop for the night.  We visited two Korean style bars as well.   They are the best!  You get your own personal room with a 'air-con' to keep you cool and a call button to call the funny server.  They gather around to hear us speak Korean and watch us drink their drink in a traditional way.  They laugh so hard when they see us speaking Korean (barely) and doing traditional style drinking.  It is an art form that ain't easily mastered.  You have to have lots and lots of training to do it correctly.  We also got a fruit platter that had some kind of mayo sauce.  It was right nasty.  I explained in Korean that it was nasty and they wadn't no mayo in the picture.  They made funny noises to express surprise and then come back 10 minutes after with some more without that nasty sauce.  It was classic.

Then we left there and went to a party store type place where we sit outside and drank a few more.  It was funny.  Everyone kept stopping and talking to us in Konglish.  We was laughing so hard for so long.  Finally some people just randomly sit with us and somehow we ended up acrosst the way in some pub.   Justin was a dancin' with tons of random people.  He had officially had too much to drink and I was a thinkin'... how am I gonna get him to leave.  Ahhhhh.  Funny!  We left at 3ish and I was so glad to get out of there.

The rest of the vacation was equally as odd.  We met some person from Uzbekistan on the subway and 4 Japanese girls who we went out to eat with .  We went to a Turkish restaurant where we were told about Allah! LOL!  I had fun with that.  We saw a Korean old lady taking a bath in the ocean with all of her clothes on.  We saw a grandmother doing exercises.  She was wearing a mask and a weird visor.  It was mighty funny.  Ahh.  I ain't even able to remember all of the funny things that happened.  Finally, we wanted to come home a few hours early.  We jumped on an early train and was questioned to why we were on that train.  They let us stay.  Foreigners here get the best of everything!!  Being foreign in Korea is truly funny!

Korea

Well, the rain was a fallin for about 2 days.  I never seen it rain like that before and I guess that Koreans hadn't either.  It was crazy.  An hour away had a bus or two half covered with water.  It has been easy at work.  In fact, it has been too easy.  I've taught about 25 hours in the last month and none this week.  I have just sit there and chatted on facebook.  Today I took me a two hour nap at work on the bench in the 'English Only Zone'.  I went to feelin' bad, but then my co-worker told me that the 'foreign' teacher slept all of the time last year.

I am on my way to the East Sea.  It should be nice weather for once tomorrow.  It rained more there than here.  We are talking about feet of rain at a time.  It is crazy.  I am going with 2 Korean friends and a friend from Scotland.  It should be funny.  My friend form Scotland wants to be an Anglican priest and he was a monk for 1 year.  What the heck! LOL!  That is funny.  We are renting a 'pension' which is a fancy beach condo for 2 days. It should be interesting since last time I slept in a beach hut.  I hope that I ain't fried again like last time.  I wish I'z able to get on here and write more a bit more.  I just don't think of it.  Well, my friends are on their way to the subway station, so I better start to walkin' with my backpack and pillow.  We have a 3 hour drive ahead of us and it is 9:35 already.  This should be fun!

The Weekend of Glory

If you was to ask me a couple days ago what I was gonna be doing over the weekend, I would have said that I have no idea.  Then I was invited to visit a island called Mu-we-do.  Of course, I'z excited about it.  They ain't much time that goes by that I'm not busy doing something..., but this seemed super fun.  I had almost no information about where I was going.  My friends organized this and I trusted that they knew what was up with this place.  I took the subway from my station and got off at the transfer stop.  My friends wadn't there, so I found me a spot on the floor and used my backpack and a pillow.  A worker come up to me and ask me to not lay down, so I got up and sit where he ask me to.  It wadn't even 2 minutes after when he come up to me and told me in perfect English that I should sit some place else.  He ask me where I was going.  Of course, I didn't know so I seemed like an idiot.  I just said that me and my friends was going to go to a island.  He said that they wadn't no islands around there. This was a total joke because it was less than 10 minutes from the sea.  That was really funny.

So, I met up with my friends and took the subway to the national airport.  This place is right cool.  There's a huge garden in it.  There are even people that drive these carts to sweep the floor.  It don't get no better than that.  We continued on in a taxi and finally took a very very short boat ride over to the island.  When we got there we walked a couple miles or so to the beach.  We seen a dead beast a ditch alongside of the road and many random animals that was alive too.  I was surprised to see many deer that were ready to be eaten.  Finally we got there and paid $7 a person to rent a hut on the beach.  Are you kidding??!!  It was amazing.  So small, yet perfect for the weekend.  They was 4 of us that need to pack into this small place with all of our stuff.  Luckily, these 4 people are quite easily content with whatever rolls their way.

This is when the day took off in the right direction.  I took me a nap and the three others took them out a walkin' on the beach.  God knows what they did while I was sleeping.  I don't want to know!  We went and had supper at a seaside restaurant and had some amazing food.  Sometime during all of this, my friend decided to say hi to a school group as we passed by.  This is totally a normal thing to do here.  Then they invited us to participate in a watermelon and three legged race.  I took 2nd in the first and they put me with the most tiniest kid for the second.  I fell once during the race and I was laughing harder than you could ever imagine.  Then, we were somehow included in this soccer team trip for the rest of the evening.  We went off and done our own thing and were invited to join them for so-ju and three layer pork along with kim-chi and various other fixins.  Wow!  Just after eating they set up a singing screen and some microphones on the beach.    Good thing they give me some so-ju because I sung a song with my friend.  We were terrible.  They still cheered and was more than excited.  We were rock stars for the evening.

After this we went walking on the beach and through various tidal pools.  I left a funny voice message for my language exchange partner and then slept like a baby in a tuna can.  In the morning, I realized that I was burnt on just half of my body.  I have NO idea how that happened.  We went back to the mainland and took a few subways back to our area.  Then we decided to go to and all you can eat buffet.  It is a weird mix of food from around the world and nothing is exactly right on, but I eat my heart out.   All I can say is that even this was glory and then some.

Fun Times and Then Some

Well, I ain't wrote in a while.  Time's a tickin' and life just keeps plowing ahead.  I can't find enough time to do all that needs done and my random variety of sicknesses and problems keeps me behind all of the time.  There just ain't enough time to do all that I need to do.

However, this weekend was great.  I was invited to visit an Anglican church in Seoul with a friend.  He is into that sort of thing more than anyone I've ever known.  I never would have gone if he had not invited me.  When you are in Korea, more random things happen than most places in the world.  So, I went to an Anglican church. It was in English and that was a plus.  There were world leaders from the English speaking world among the 50ish people.  It was random.

Every detail of this two day trip was planned by a nun I had never heard of in a city that is 5 hours away.  5 hours away means the opposite side of the country.  My friend knows this lady, so she was cool and arranged that we visit this place.  We was greeted by the owner of a Korean packaging company who is just plain rich.  I doubt I've ever talked to anyone richer.  He let us know that we'd be staying at their 'guest house'.  It was nothing short of a mansion.  I ain't never even heard of a fireplace in a Korean house.  This one had one and a library to boot.  We toured a university or two with the dean of the university giving a personal tour.  Of course, we had coffee with him as well.  These are the things that only happen in Korea.  This guy had no idea who we were.  However, he give it his best shot to give us a tour and show us around.

After dinner with the host family, we went to a crazy expensive chocolate store and then off to the bar and finally to a 'singing room'.  I sung several country songs which made them very very happy.  My friend from New Zealand told me that he didn't think people like me existed anymore.  It was funny.  The really funny thing is he meant it as a genuine compliment.  In the morning we went their house after getting picked up in a luxury car.  We drove into the gated community and parked in the underground parking lot.  I was shocked to see the crazy expensive cars lined up.  We got out and went up in the most fanciest elevator I ever seen in my life.

Then we went into the house.  The living room was bigger than my house.  It was crazy.  We was so awestruck, but we had to act like it was totally normal.   This is not normal in Korea and I don't think I know a Korean who has even had such an experience or anything similar.  We are talking rich and famous type house.  Way crazy!  We ate some really good food and then did our day of touring Anglican stuff.  I saw the first Anglican church built like a Buddist temple.  It was sorta like a church inside, but you had to take your shoes off.   On the outside it was more like a temple.  There were pictures of all people that was killed for their faith during the Korean War.  The priest was more than excited to greet us.  It was cool.  Then we went to visit another church with similar history on a remote island.  The early Christians would hide on these remote islands so they wouldn't get killed.  The woman drove us everywhere and paid for everything during this voyage.  He great-uncle was one of the first priests here.  I could see just about the whole history of the message of Jesus within this family.  What a great thing to have seen from the inside.  Just amazing.  The impact that this family had for the Kingdom of God is just insane.  The largest church in the world is in Korea now.  Without this family, it wouldn't have happened.  Just amazing.  They were the first.  They risked their lives and the Gospel is rather well known here now.

A Living Prayer

I have had a very interesting week.  It is a long weekend, so life is slow yet fast.  They ain't time to count my blessings, but they are a plenty this week despite my actions of selfishness.  I guess that's what happens when you realize what a piece of crap you are while at the same time understanding the opposite. This is the story of my reflections this week.  Just thought I'd share!

The last 2 days of the work week was spent in my chair at work in front of the computer.  I sit there playing on the computer cuz they wadn't anything to do.  It was mid-term week and 'Guest English Teachers' don't do anything.  I was stoked about that.  I've been sick and I've had the cough.  It had been there for 3 weeks, so I begun thinking that it was just how life goes.  I got used to it.  On Friday, I woke up with crusty eyes.  I went off to work and taught a total of one hour because the 2nd grade classes were 'going over the midterms'.  Thankfully, I took myself to the doctor.  I seen two doctors in 1 hour and got my 9 pills.  I was back to work within the hour.  Now that's some serious doctor action.  I have pink eye and 'complications from the flu'.  I had that 3 weeks ago and the leftovers ain't went away.  I guess this is a threat to my life if left unchecked.  3 weeks was long enough.  I give up on the gym which is depressing.  I need to feel better so I can go back.  It makes the week much more enjoyable to be able to take me out a walkin' and stroll off to the gym.  I feel much better now that I've took all of these pills for 1 1/2 days.

Today, I woke up to a slightly crusty eye which was much better than yesterday.  I cleaned my house and took out the trash.  My house is small so it had went to stinkin' again.  Just the slightest amount of food does that here.  I done the laundry to make sure I had a clean pillow case.  In addition, I have a friend coming from the Philippines.  I met him during my two summers of missions training in Florida. Random!  So, I had to clean up my house to some degree.  I had planned to have a mat for him to sleep on, but my friend requested that I return his mat that he dropped off here 5 weeks ago just before his arrival.  That's how my week has went.  So, in 20 minutes he should be here.

Here I sit just a thinkin' about the random day that clearly had the hand of God clearly marking my path in front of me.  I can't outrun Him cuz he's planned everything since before time begun.  What the heck!  Today after cleaning the house a bit, I went to a cafe called 'F-Hole'.  No, I ain't making this up.  A friend who works at the school just up the way on the same street recommended it to me.  I went again today.  I guess the owner is just amazing.  He made every single table, wall and bit of flooring in the whole place.  We can barely talk, but we sit there on google translate and chat it up all the same.  I was told by my friend that the feeling in 'F-Hole' is like home with a twist.  LOL!  I know...sounds nasty right. After two or three visits I understand why.  He asked for some song suggestions for his cafe.  I thought that some Alison Krauss music would add to the folksy feeling he has going on in there.  I told him about the song 'A Living Prayer' and he downloaded it.  I knew he was Christian because some friends had told me already.  He transfered the song to the MP3 player and played it.  As she sung the first two lines he just randomly started to cry as he sit at the computer.  He knows almost no English.  Then he pointed to his arms.  He had the most visible goosebumps I've ever seen.  It was one of those crazy Holy Spirit moments that you could never doubt.  I hadn't even told him what the song was about and he knew almost nothing about me.

After all of that, I met a teacher friend from Scotland.  He's really interesting too.  I guess his mom is in a mental institution and he is one of the only people in his village of 300 that has ever left the country.  He studied theology and became a youth pastor before coming to Korea.  We had some sushi before going back to the cafe for a quick cup of coffee.  Good coffee is hard to come by here.  Most of it is powdered and in a packet. It's not so good.  Then we made the voyage back to my area by way of the underground shopping center that is vastly huge.  After all of that, I'm waiting for a friend to come tonight.  Life just keeps a rollin' along with twists and turns.  Truly a living prayer this week!

Good and Bad

It ain't too many times when I look back on a weekend and I think that it shaped a period in my life or way of thinking.  That's what happened this weekend.  It all started with a plan to go and watch some bullfighting.  I ain't never went to anything like it before, so I was up for it.  Several friends planned to go, but on ditched and another had to work.  So, it was just my friend Justin and me.  I was hoping that there would be 4-8 people in our group as usual.  But, it was what it was.  Then it al began!

I met Justin a few subway stops away and we went on our journey.  It was a random and fun weekend with lots of turns that couln't be imagined.  So weird.  This is why we call it 'Dynamic Korea!"  There's one thing that ain't a lie, and that is that Korea is just that.. Dynamic!

The final destination was a town called Cheongdo.  This is considered a village in Korea and they ain't nothing there except a bull festival and some peaches.  There are a several thousand people, but there's a old school feeling.  It is not so modern and a bit dirty.  So among other things, it is not the best place in the world.  We got on the train in Seoul and it goes 200 and some km/hr.  Very..very.. very.. very.. fast! We made it to a very large city called Daegu.  I'd guess that there are about 2 million people there.  This is when the crazy stuff started to happen.  We walked out of the train station and tried to take a taxi.   We got in 3 taxis and asked if they could take us to one of 3 motels that we had researched near the train station.  All 3 of them claimed to either not understand or not know where any of them were.  Then we decided that the best thing was to find downtown and get us some food.  That was my idea!  After that, we needed to find a place to sleep.  Well, there are many a motel in Korea, but most of 'em are not exactly that!  Finally we talked to many people on the street asking in Korean where we should sleep.  Nobody knew what the heck we were saying.  It was pretty funny.  Then we decided that we were tired so we had to find somewhere to sleep.  It shouldn't be that hard in a city of 2 million.  We found many 'motels' and we went inside one and paid $30 for the night.  Just one heated bed and a nasty bathroom.  It was very uncomfortable and very hot on the 3rd floor.  We opened the windows and left to go to a bar.  On the way back in we noticed a random hooker sitting on a chair next to the road.  Random!

In the morning we tried to make it to Cheongdo for the bull festival.  Justin was obsessed with getting there.  We asked the KTX train worker and she told us to get on tthe 3rd train in English, so we did.  The train went to rollin' down the tracks and I looked over at Justin and said, 'This ain't the right train!"  We were headed to the other side of the country to a city called Busan.  When we got off of the train, there were palm trees!  I wore a coat on the train if that tells you anything. LOL!  We was there for 8 hours and see an amazing mall, fish market, harbor and many other things.  It wasn't enough time, but we give it our best for a mistake.  Finally, we went back to Cheongdo by train.

Cheongdo was weird at best.  We got there and tried to get some food.  We wanted some specific food so we walked around asking people where a good restaurant was.  They didn't say! Weird.  We finally got to one and we were told to sit on the floor and eat, but as soon as we started to sit down the owner run over and told us that we should leave.  He hates foreigners! LOL!  We found another place and found some more people who told us where to sleep.  We went there and found an empty room with a pile of blankets.  We paid $40 for it.  Then we went to a bar for some food again and found a very old school place.  The service was amazing and we had a great time.  Awesome conversation and food followed by wanting to go to a singing room.  We went to one, but it was empty.  We sit there and sung into the microphone until the lady came and told us a very high price.  We left angry!  We asked some fast food workers for help and we jumped into their car and they drove us to another one.  Same price, so we left!  We'z so pissed at all of these rural haters.  I was content to just sleep after that!

In the morning, we found the only restaurant that was open on Sunday and then took a packed bus full of old people to the festival.  There was an old singing clown just a singin' away as we got off of the bus.  Weird.  Then we went into this huge stadium and sit right in front down close to the fights.  It wasn't bloody or anything.  I was expecting it to be nasty.  Most of the time, the bulls just run off and lost.  It was funny at times too.  Then we were greeted by this extreamly kind family in front of us.  They wanted take us to this wine tunnel built into a mountain to taste Korean wine.  Keep in mind that it was just a random family who decided to give us a tour of the village and the wine production area inside of a mountain.  Then they dropped us back off at the train station.  We took the train back to Daegu and finally had a standing room only ride the rest of the way back.  The worker would bow each and every time she come into our train or left.  We laughed pretty hard since most of the passengers were sleeping and she bowed anyway.

Choices

Life is so full of choices.  I make the choice if I'm gonna post on here or not every day.  I usually want to, but something comes up and I don't.  They's so much in life that is totally up to us.  Actually, I've been in a struggle to understand how much is really up to us and how much God has set up for us.  I mean, he prepared good works for us to do before the foundation of Earth.  How crazy is that!  My main choice every day is if I will follow God or my-own-self.  I am sure that it is true for every single human even if they don't know it.  Or is it?  I don't know to be honest.

I am at the point in my life where I usually know what will happen if I do X,Y or Z.  What the heck is wrong with me?  The reality is that everyone is just as messed up.  Some are better at being able to hide it.  Regardless of anything I do, I can't control God.  He is there every time I choose to follow or to deny.  What is it about this God who sits quiet next to me as I do stupid stuff and then is OK with me despite whatever?  How can he tolerate such dumb behavior?  I know the reason, but it don't make no sense.  I try and figure it out and it is beyond me.   I know why, but still I ask myself over and over.  Perhaps that's why people keeps coming back around to Him despite our sometimes constant dumbness.  This is in fact is not a choice.  I ain't able to ignore any of this.  So, it is not a choice.  Arrr.  I got the headache.

All of these things rolls around in my head over and over.  My life may seem bad according to this post, but I wouldn't have it any other way.  I am content in the here and now.  I have so much more than I could ever ask for and it's more where that come from.   As far as I can see, only good has happened to me.  Some bad things have went down, but in the end they've been good.  Friends and family has come and went and so have I.  I couldn't have guessed any of this when I was 14 or even 17.  I've been thinking lately about even being able to think on these things.  It just flips me out.  We are so complex and it is really true that they ain't nobody who can understand our thinking or our hearts.  I get so excited when I talk to people that thinks about these things at all.  There's so many who just plunder through life without even a thought on it.  This post really has give me the headache, so I better get back to doing something else.

Long Time No Write

I've wanted to write for about a week and I just couldn't pull myself toward this keyboard to write.  I've been sick.  Sick ain't fun.  I don't think I've ever had the cold that travels before.  It started after having some nice cake at an expensive coffee shop.  It had a curtain around the table and the ever so common button on the table to call the server.  Yep, I ain't kidding!  There's a server who treats you like gold as you take each and every sup of coffee.  I felt fine then, but then I took the subway home and then it started.  My stomach started hurting more worser than you could imagine.  Then I woke up and liketa fell over from the nasty feeling in my core.  I forced myself to get up and get ready. It's Saturday in Korea!  That means your friends expect you to travel to the capital of 12 million and party!  How can you not show up when about 30 people you know has been sending you e-mails all week about how fun it will be?  So, I got up took the subway alone to meet up with a few friends.  We went the rest of the way.  When we transfered on the subway, I felt as if I become a tiny little piss ant.  We crammed in and then more people pushed and pulled until there was more people than should be allowed in 2 subway cars.  I ain't tellin' no joke!  I had bodies touching every part of my entire body except my head and neck.  Remember, I was sick too!  No wonder people get sick so much here.

My sickness has changed into a sore throat, chest cold, headache and terrible cough with nasty stuff lurkin' in my lungs.  It just won't budge.  Despite this, my days have been filled with unstoppable fun.  It just don't stop. I don't never get bored.  It's just too much to do.  My sink currently has egg shells that needs to be cleaned out.  I'll get to that when I finish this post.  School is just a job.  Dynamic Korea is just a way to say that it is organized.  They gonna give me the third monthly schedule tomorrow that I've had in 4 days.  I don't think they can make up their minds as to what they want me to do.  I'll keep putting on a content face at school.  They don't need to know no different.  I started my Korean lessons last Thursday with a Korean friend.  We have a great time.  My friends gets to practice English as I learn Korean so it is a bit of a language exchange.  Free is good.

Then there is my church.  I liked my church in the cold hard town.  Well, I liked many of the people.  Let's just say that my church here is full of awesome people.  It is a bit crazy.  The pastor is from Michigan.  He likes Africa too!  9 times out of 10 when he's a preachin' I feel as if I'm the only person there.  I actually focus on what's being said and it applies to me.  I really enjoy it!  Beyond that, it ain't a week that goes by where they ain't a dinner after.  I even had South African food.  It is 100% meat.  How cool is that?  Protein is scarce here in Korea, so that was a treat.  We usually go out to eat.  It is strange going to a huge church with 10s of services.  I don't know anyone in any of the other services.  Besides, they are all Korean, so it is what it is.  There's a bible museum one floor up from my service in the education building.  Now that's amazing.  I want to visit it soon.  I hope it stays as fun and interesting for a good long while.  They ain't no other place like it in the world. I can promise you that.







 

Wow

I went out to eat with what I thought was the new teachers.  We ate octupus.  The table was set with veggies already in the hot plate burner in the sit-down table.  They brung more side dishes and I sit on the floor a waitin' to see what would happen next.  The lady walked up with scissors in her hand carrying a octupus in her hand.  She began cutting apart the poor little ole' guy one arm at a time.  She didn't cut his head off.  Instead, she dropped hiim into really hot water and boilt it.  LOL!  I tried to not look shocked, but it was clear.  Then they allowed it to boil and put the head in my bowl for me.  There sit a head and then they cut it and dark blackish stuff flowed out of it.  Yep, I picked it up and eat it.  No problem.  I had to avoid looking at the blackish stuff as it rolled out of the poor ole' things head. 

Then when I thought it was about over, we finally did finish.  Well 9 of us was done and the principal continued eating in order to force everyone to remain there.  Nobody can leave until he is done.  One of his clear goals is to force people to hang out.  It isn't the easiest thing to do regardless of the cultural 'work party' event that must happen 1 or 2 times a month.  We finally finished and 4 of us went to a bar.  I'm really trying to not drink a lot, but that is seriously all they do here.  I couldn't say no and I really had no idea where home was despite being only a couple blocks from my main area.  I give in and went with them.  I mostly just sit there listening to them talk in Korean and not knowing what they was sayin'.  Every now and then they would fill me in.  I appreciated it.

Tomorrow I work 8 hours, but I have to teach 2 classes.  So, tomorrow I'll be desk-warming.  No problem!  I don't mind.  It is pretty sweet, but I am not looking forward to the time when I will be the only person in the building except the janitor. LOL!  That's during summer and winter break.  I'll just sit there all day with nothing to do.  Wow!

One Hour

I got off work one hour early today.  We call this dynamic Korea.  Things here don't make too much sense and most teachers go crazy trying to figure it out.  I had taught my four hours out of a eight hour day and after the kids went home, they just told me to go home.  I was more than excited.  I didn't sleep much yesterday night.  I went to a weird so-ju bar with a friend.  They had Arabicish drapes 'round most of the booths, but ours was strange.  We didn't get one.  It was bright red with mirrors and flashing lights everywhere.  Each light changed colors every five seconds or so.  I liketa went crazy trying to focus on our conversation.  The waitor asked for our id.  We have no idea why!  Perhaps he thought we were not 18 or he just wanted to examine our ids and figure out where we were from.  Who knows?  I was there for a little longer than one hour.

I went to the PC room which is basically a room with lots of computers.  I choose the smoke free room.  It ain't truly smoke free, but it ain't that bad either.  I went there today cuz my stupid Internet at home worked well for less than one day.  I don't have a clue why it don't work no more.  Just one day.  I guess that's better than a hour.  I chilled there and then went to the gym for a hour.  The gym is nutty too.  People jiggle their fat on these random machines that once was popular in the US back in yesteryear.  It is hard not to notice these strange things going on or the fact that I'm strange compared to them.  Yep! They all stare at me.  I hate it, but a gym is a gym and that's it.  Regardless of the hour of being stared at, I endure.  I'm back at the PC room for a hour. 

After work tomorrow, I have to go out to eat with all of the new teachers in my middle school.  I guess they rotate schools every five years and some of them get placed in schools that are really far from their houses.  I feel bad, but that's their system. Dynamic Korea!  I hope it don't last much more than one hour.  Meals out are just what people do for work.  I enjoy eating, but I usually just sit there and maybe pertend to know what is going on.  Last time I sit there on the floor and smiled for one hour while eating.  Not my idea of fun.  Maybe I'll get to watch them building an amazing apartment near my school on the way to the restaurant.  They just lift one room at a time with a crane.  Nutty! People just walk under them as they are building as if there's no possible danger.  Dynamic Korea!

Randomness

I worked til 4:30 like on most days on Friday.  I left and walked part of the way home with a co-worker.  We stopped in at a store and I bought me a nice diet coke.  I love them things.  I also got some air spray for my stinky loft.  That's another story!  My friend took the subway the rest of the way and I went on my way.  I was in my own little ole world drinking my pop.  I drunk just about 80% of it and as I was waltzing along somebody stoled my can right out of my hands.  He must have been ever bit of 30 years old.  I couldn't believe it.  I just kept going with the air spray in my other hand.  I was stunned.  I still can't understand what it was about.  It ain't like he was a drinkin' or at least I don't think he was.  Just crazy!

Well after all of that, I went home to my stinky house and took a nice nap.  After that I went to meet up with a friend.  He happens to be from England and we struggle to understand each other.  Funny!  First I went to Mickey D's to wait and I ordered what I thought was a chocolate ice cream in a cup.  They gave it to me and it had cookies on the bottom with coffee on top.  Weird.  So then I met up with my friend which is saying something cuz hardly any of us have cell phones yet and most of us have no idea how to travel by bus or subway.  Of course, we can't talk to anyone so that ain't easy either.

We went to lookin' for a restaurant and found one that serves pork b-que.  We had ribs this time which is typical.  I had to talk for both of us which was a trip.  I hardly know anything in Korean so they mostly laughed at us while we tried to eat with chopsticks and act like we knew what was up.  It was so many things that made all of us laugh.  Randomess is what it was.  We wanted to find some place that reminded us of home so we ended up in a Miller bar.  The whole time I kept a thinkin' how White Trash it was.  Miller beer.... are you serious?? LOL!  It was so expensive too.  What the heck!  Then we wandered around and decided that we wanted so-ju which is their rice drink.  We wandered into another similar restaurant and tried to order for one, but they insisted that we order for two.  We were not hungry at all.   That's what you get I guess.  After that we wandered back to my house to try and solve the stinky problem.

You have to understand that I'd been there for over a week and I hadn't give up a single bit of my trash.  It was like I was hanging on to it.  No actually, I had no idea what to do with it.   I guess I was supposed to somehow know how to seperate each and every piece of garbage and put it in this mysterious place.  I finally asked and got a general idea where it was supposed to go.  I took it downstairs at midnight in hope that nobody would be there.  Well, of course it was 4 middle aged guys down there and they quickly followed me and stared and started telling me what to do.  Well, it didn't help none.  I wandered back and forth and he followed telling me what to do.  So, then I finally got rid of my trash and it stunk just a bit less in my loft.

Korea

I have not wrote a word since I got here.  I been too busy thinking about what's next?  Here is a list of things that have stoled my time from me.

1.  Where's my training manual?
2.  Where's the campus gym?
3.  Where are my friends on my floor?
4.  Where is my co-teacher?
5.  Where is an umbrella?
6.  Why is there bugs in seafood soup?
7.  When can I skype?

So, as you can see the first nine days in Korea and the two after that have been amazingly busy and difficult.  However, it has been mighty rewarding too!  I was at a univeristy for the first 9 days living in a dorm.  I eat dorm food (Korean style) with 400 international teachers and had classes until 8pm every night.  After that, we had to prepare for the next day and somehow manage go painting the town til 1am.  Yep, 9 days in a row of 1am.  I liketa run myself into the ground.  Despite all this, it was more than fun.  I've pretty much never met a bigger group of interesting people.  Lot of people from South Africa, Canada, UK, Ireland, New Z. and Australia.

After these action packed days, I finally arrived in Incheon.  There were 12 teachers in my group.  Most of the other cities had more like 60 teachers going to each region.  We were lucky to have such a small group.  Now, I've met my co-teacher and seen the school and my most greatest loft house.  It is sweet!  Living on the 10th floor looking over the city is pretty sweet.  I got to see my friends from before and meet there 4 year old boy Jay-gwan.  He's pretty funny and he tries to talk to me all the time. LOL! Funny!  I ate raw beef and bug soup, so I been livin' large too.  I went to a Western bar and it was lame.  Just a bunch of idiot who complain about life in Korea. LOL!  That's about it for now.

So Far So Good

I've been stressed to the max the last few weeks.  It's just things that keep coming up.  First, the 'visa lady' calls and says that she don't have the right work visa papers and then I drive like an idiot to mail her some documents.   I made it to Kinkos or ever-what it's called now.  LOL!  I get there and mail it and it still ain't right.  I finally went to thinkin' that Korea ain't what's best or whatever.  I don't know.

However, the 'document lady' who actually helps decided to pay for me to take a train and come to Chicago.  Yep..., that's where I am now.  Crazy!  I took a train and it had some delays too.  Everything in this process involves delays.  I went up to the top of the NBC tower in Chicago and officially entered Korea through some glass doors.  It was so easy to walk up to the counter and ask for my passport except the lady who is in charge of the visas was on lunch.  It don't get more funnier than that.  No matter what I done during this process, nothing has went smooth.

So far, it ain't been the best.  However, it is far from the worst.  I have my job and a way to get there and I ain't had to pay for the transportation or most of the annoying and bothersome crap.  Here's the bad part.....!  I'll be so far.  I mean, Alasker wasn't even that far.  Let's hope the lame airlines don't steal my stuff or Big Sis either.  LOL!  It seems that each and ever time that I think about going someplace far, more family drama happens too.  I know I ain't able to control or fix any of it,  but it sucks that two of my favorite cousins and my mom has serious health problems.  This ain't been so good.

Fear and Joy

I know I ain't been on here very much.  There's been too many things going on.  All of the things that made me busy have been making me not post.  Well, it ain't that simple.  In reality, all of those things have give me a reason to be stressed.  What is stress?  Why do we get it?  I've had several converstations with friends about this stress that has been poured on myself.  Most of it goes like this.... "I fear that............... willl happen and ............................. ain't gonna happen.  So, I pretty much convinced myself and still got a few ideas that going to Korea is not the best idea.  However, I'm also convinced that this is what God has for me. 

So, I keep a prayin' that this move will be as good as the last.  The Cold Hard Town was that indeed.  However, the blessings were far above what one might expect from a lame fishing town with drunk people everywhere.  I'z a scared to go to the doctor recently for fear that they'd reject my application based on health reasons.  I almost didn't sleep enough which made me fighting mad.  They ain't a good reason in the world for me to not sleep well.  I do believe that there's less of a reason to be affraid of my health.  The doctor give me more than a clean bill of health and sent me a screamin' out the doctor's office.  There was something in me that wanted a problem.  I don't know what that is.  I hate it.  I want things to go well and I want them to mess up.  Perhaps, that's how I stay so happy all of the time.  LOL

The joy that God has give me in the last 7 months is far beyond whatever I've accepted before.  I am usually able to get that Jesus does what He wants and that is good for me.  I'm not sure who or what stoled it from me.  I'm pretty sure that it was my own doing.  I somehow took from myself what God give me and then decided to not see it.  The scary thing is that I was not angry about this stuff.  It was just life.  I hope that I don't never turn down that road again.  I need to know that know that my joy is not from myself and was not produced by what I do and was not created by my mind or my actions.  That ain't easy!

I'll keep a truckin' down this road and see where it leads.  This is certainly not a road that I could have come up with my-own-self.  I promise.  I could have never made up my life.  It is so random and continues to be twisting and turning faster than I can even know which direction I am going in.  If you been able to read this entire rant... I give props! Peace out!