Case of the BLAHS

Its been a long time since a post, but such is life when you fall into a monotonous hole. Ok, its not THAT bad, but it feels as though my weekly experiences are the same..I go to schoool and teach children, I come home, I eat dinner, I go to sleep, then do it all over again the next day. Some of my friends from college still say they want to go back to it; they are in no rush to grow up or to move on with lives beyond the parties and the fun. I'm mostly over that segment of my life. Being in South Korea I had to, more or less, dive head first into the life of a nine to five (in my case, however, it is an 11 to 6:30 =) Being here made the transition into "adult life" easier because I had no choice, I couldn't run back home or to my normal group of friends.

South Korea has "glamorized" the experience for tale's sake, people that I talk to over the internet say what a "great experience" or "awesome opportunity" being here is. I am not taking it for granted at all, it is a blessing to be able to get the experience of another culutre and be paid for it simultaneously, however it just feels like home minus the people I am used to seeing. Maybe that is a good thing, but again, I feel as though I have seen what I wanted to see and done what I wanted to do here. There really isn't enough time in the week to experience any major cultural excursions and the weekends are too short! Making it to the weekend now means getting to sleep in and looking forward to doing, well, not much at all because it is over when you blink, and Monday starts the cycle again.

I feel like I want to come home to get my "own" experiences; here everything feels like it is on pause as I have very little interaction with people who will be in my future. I am ready to take what i have learned over this "real-life acclamation period" and see what my future really holds.

I also find myself doing more things related to my class, even on my off days. For Fall, I decorated my whole classroom in leaves and Halloween themed items. And now it is winter, and I spent an entire day decorating and making cut outs for the children to enjoy. And it made my say as well lol.

Thanksgiving was bland being away from everyone; Tarita and the whole ICC clan had a week-long break and went back to the US. I spent the day at work, and then on friday (since there are no ovens) I ordered fried chicken and watched a movie. Happy thanksgiving lol. Saturday, I bought a bus ticket and made a solo trip to Seoul to do some shopping. I actually had fun by myself, looking around at the Christmas decorations and even walking around in a crowd of people. It took a lot less time to get there also. Apparently the times I went with the ICC crew, we took unnecessary subway routes. I am glad to see how my directional skills are improving =)

Christmas will be close to the same lonely; I have to work on Christmas Eve, and the ICC crew is leaving for Hong Kong on that day, so I wont be able to go, thus another major holiday alone. Its ok, I am used to being alone now, sometimes it is more comfortable than being surrounded by people who pull you in every direction aside from the one you wanted to go. Here are some pics from our Halloween party, as well as my decorations for Winter and a few pics from my solo trip to Seoul. I have also been craving American food, so I made strawberry pancakes and spinach, onion, and cheese eggs. (the cheese here is not my fave by the way...their "cheddar" is really American cheese, but I made do =)