Skin Me

I'm so sick of my skin issues.  I hate them.  They come and they go and they change more than one changes underwear.  I've come the end of the rope so it seems.  I'm a-scared to go to the doctors because they ain't got the slightest idea what it is.  I think I have something simple this time.  However, they will give me 5 different things and send me on my way.  As my aunt says, 'They don't know the difference between a ass and a hole in the ground'.  I agree.  I will give it a shot and try and hit up a skin doctor, but it just makes my skin crawl to think of all of the lame things they told me last time about what I mighta coulda had.

I'm gonna try and get my eyes fixed soon.  I hate wearing glasses and the surgery is much less expensive here than back in the US.  I'll try and figure that out soon.  I have 2 weeks vacation, so why not try and get it done during that time since I ain't got a chance to head home for my vacation.  I have to figure out how to get my work visa put into my new passport so that should be fun.  I don't see why it needs to be so difficult sometimes over here.  I live like an all grown adult, but yet as a child.  I feel like nothing but a tiny little piss ant crawling among all of the people running around here too.  I'll be able to see better and it might not be so annoying after the surgery.  All of the people running around makes my eyes even more foggy.

I want to skin myself when I think of the election coming up.  I am so sad to see the country going in the direction it is going in.  It is just sad.  Where did all of the greatness of the country go.  I can remember that just a few years ago when I was right proud to be American and part of such an amazing country.  Now, I am more excited about the Grand Canyon and the mighty Mississippi than the political landscape.  My head's a hurtin' just thinking of it now.  How can we have such a sick system.  They are all not for me or my beliefs or my family or my church or my career or my community back home.  I'm an alien here too.  I even have a card to prove it, but my American passport that I just got failed to give me a bright feeling when I got it back in the mail this time.  I remember proudly reading through it last time I got one renewed.  I ain't so content with the state of the country anymore.  It just makes me sad.  I mean really sad.  Politics makes me sick now.  I used to like it, but now I am just wanting to know what is going on, but I get sad reading instead of excited.  My skin curls.  So sad!

New Chapter

It looks like a new chapter of my life is about to open.  It is the kind of thing that was only a dream just a few months ago.  They was no way that I could have done any of this alone.  I guess that this is one of those times that I am a bit angry at God for no reason. I can't place my anger, but I know with my head that all that is happening is good and is a gift that I only kind of earned.  I only done so well because of the support of others.  I am just not a person that can do things alone very well.  I can do almost nothing well all by myself.  I remember having a good friend sign me up for classes in university.  I wasn't exactly able to even use the computer well enough or sift through all of them dumb courses in the booklet.

I am just at a point where I cannot even start to think that I done it alone.   It is evident that Jesus is in control and I am not.  I fight to be in control of things and I fail.  I give up and God pulls through for me.  How is it possible that I landed this job? I went with a friend to the interview because it is fairly scary to travel alone in Korea to an interview at a top level school alone.  I'd be able to do it in the US without thinking, but not here.  Things are different and I can't speak much Korean.  My friend couldn't either, but we are dumb together.  That is the way to do it.  I sit through the interview and I give it my best.  Them 30 minutes were fairly short.  Time flew by and I don't recall too many details except the awkward times.  I walked out of the room and walked clear in the wrong direction instead of remembering where I had come in.  Then I went out and found my friend.  I said, "What you do?"  He said, "I don't know, but you got that."  I went on to tell the good and bad things about the interview and the questions that they asked and everthing else I could come up with.
Two weeks after, I seen this girl in our language exchange group.  She ask me about the job.  I told her that I wasn't sure and she went on to tell me that I didn't get the job.  She was sure.  How could someone just come right out and say that.  I don't know.  Are you serious?

I had to renew my passport and the courier company lost my passport for 1 week.  That ain't cool when you don't have an easy way to renew it here.  I needed it.  Not fun!!  It was found and got delivered today.  I continued to doubt each and every part.  I don't trust in God when he is clearly in control and I am not.  So, the chapter is a new one, but it ain't a clearly written one.  I know I can do this job, but I can't do it in my own strength.  I pray that this month will be filled with a calm feeling rather than anxiety about stuff that I ain't able to control.

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!