Gosh...(Yes. I say Gosh now. Who knows where I picked that one up?). It’s only been 2 weeks since my last blog entry and, again, it seems like so long ago. It seems I haven’t been able to cook good food in ages. Don’t get me wrong, the food here is succulent, providing you go out to a restaurant to eat it. Even Korean fast food, like Kimbap (seaweed & rice sushi roll), is delicious. It’s the food that I make at home that is sadly disgusting. First, I don’t have an oven. Second, I can’t seem to find any worthwhile ingredient. Third, everything has sugar in it (even plain yoghurt or wheat cereals. You have to look extra hard to find regular – well, MY version of regular, at any rate! -tea and coffee instead of the popular instant granulated pouches). Fourth, fruits and vegetables are crazy expensive. Fifth, because I can’t yet read the labels, items I believe I’m buying sometimes turn out to be something completely different and not at all what I thought they were, and, well, six…I don’t know. I’m gonna have to try harder, I guess. I’m having trouble transitioning to the Korean diet of rice and something else at every meal.
That being said, my apartment itself looks much better! I have this great, big (by Seoul standards) place with a nice washroom. My shower is separated from the rest by a tiny wall and this prevents the counter and toilet from getting wet when I clean myself. As I mentioned before, this is by no means standard in Korea. Anyways, I spent most of last weekend painting the walls white. I painted right on top of the wallpaper (I know, a little odd) but it does look very fresh now. The wallpaper was an old, faded, whitish beige and had seen much better days. Progress at my place is slow (as in I still haven’t cleaned the floor once since I got here) but certain. I also fear I may have gone overboard with the wallpaper stickers but I’m not done. The whole place hasn’t COME TOGETHER so I can’t yet judge.
Hummm.
I received my schedule and start teaching class on Monday. I think my life is about to become extremely hectic in a way I just don’t understand yet. I’ll be working 9:00 to 7:30 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and 9:00 to 5:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I’ve also decided I was signing up for another 10k run for mid-October and a 21k run sometime after that... I have started running again (yah, I kinda hadn’t really done any after my first 10k in May…it was as though I had attained that goal and that was so surprising it was enough for moi!). I am enjoying running along the beautiful river and through the park here though. So much so, it seems, that I stop paying attention to my immediate surroundings. I swear, I live inside my head sometimes. I was so absorbed by the fact that I was running in SEOUL the other day that, enraptured by the moment, I managed to fall flat on my face in the middle of a concrete mountain path. Needless to say, I looked like a true moron. I was so stunned I didn’t actually realize what a spectacle I’d made of myself until a few moments later. I just lay there for I don’t know how long before it hit me (hit me, HA HA!)… F***! Even my chin hit the pavement. When I got up, TONS of people were staring at me but none of them seemed to know what to do. I just played cool, yelled “I’M ALL RIGHT” (like anybody here can understand me) and when everyone just kept walking away with weird looks on their faces, I started giggling my head off and kept running. Can you picture a runner jogging along on her own laughing her head off at apparently nothing? Are you getting the picture? I must have run for another 30 minutes with bloody knees and hands and a huge bruise on my chin. What an ambassador for Canada I turned out to be.
Then, when I got back home, I realized I didn’t have any band-aids or ointment so THAT was fun, too. I’m freaking hurting right now…my muscles are tight since I forgot to stretch through all the hoopla last night. I also just watched the last 15 minutes of Miss Potter and a video I’ve made of Zeb and I feel like crying. Oh, AND I know I’ll miss Danya’s wedding, which is in what, like, 5 dodos now? Double schnits.
Hhhhhaaaaammmmmmmmmmpppppphhhhhhhhhh.
That being said, my apartment itself looks much better! I have this great, big (by Seoul standards) place with a nice washroom. My shower is separated from the rest by a tiny wall and this prevents the counter and toilet from getting wet when I clean myself. As I mentioned before, this is by no means standard in Korea. Anyways, I spent most of last weekend painting the walls white. I painted right on top of the wallpaper (I know, a little odd) but it does look very fresh now. The wallpaper was an old, faded, whitish beige and had seen much better days. Progress at my place is slow (as in I still haven’t cleaned the floor once since I got here) but certain. I also fear I may have gone overboard with the wallpaper stickers but I’m not done. The whole place hasn’t COME TOGETHER so I can’t yet judge.
Hummm.
I received my schedule and start teaching class on Monday. I think my life is about to become extremely hectic in a way I just don’t understand yet. I’ll be working 9:00 to 7:30 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and 9:00 to 5:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I’ve also decided I was signing up for another 10k run for mid-October and a 21k run sometime after that... I have started running again (yah, I kinda hadn’t really done any after my first 10k in May…it was as though I had attained that goal and that was so surprising it was enough for moi!). I am enjoying running along the beautiful river and through the park here though. So much so, it seems, that I stop paying attention to my immediate surroundings. I swear, I live inside my head sometimes. I was so absorbed by the fact that I was running in SEOUL the other day that, enraptured by the moment, I managed to fall flat on my face in the middle of a concrete mountain path. Needless to say, I looked like a true moron. I was so stunned I didn’t actually realize what a spectacle I’d made of myself until a few moments later. I just lay there for I don’t know how long before it hit me (hit me, HA HA!)… F***! Even my chin hit the pavement. When I got up, TONS of people were staring at me but none of them seemed to know what to do. I just played cool, yelled “I’M ALL RIGHT” (like anybody here can understand me) and when everyone just kept walking away with weird looks on their faces, I started giggling my head off and kept running. Can you picture a runner jogging along on her own laughing her head off at apparently nothing? Are you getting the picture? I must have run for another 30 minutes with bloody knees and hands and a huge bruise on my chin. What an ambassador for Canada I turned out to be.
Then, when I got back home, I realized I didn’t have any band-aids or ointment so THAT was fun, too. I’m freaking hurting right now…my muscles are tight since I forgot to stretch through all the hoopla last night. I also just watched the last 15 minutes of Miss Potter and a video I’ve made of Zeb and I feel like crying. Oh, AND I know I’ll miss Danya’s wedding, which is in what, like, 5 dodos now? Double schnits.
Hhhhhaaaaammmmmmmmmmpppppphhhhhhhhhh.
Sometimes, travelling is NOT so easy.
And, tomorrow, I am going to the doctor’s for the famous Seoul visa applicant medical checkup. Four of us teachers are going for a regular checkup and various random tests. I have heard stories about that place I’d rather not repeat here on the internet. Now THAT should brighten me right up! Did you know the results are sent directly to the school so if ever it does turn out there IS something seriously wrong with me, half of the staff will get to discuss it before I even HEAR about it.
Anyways, I’m too tired to put much else on here right now but I realize I haven’t sent much news. I do put pictures up to make up for it, though. After the medical fiesta tomorrow, I’m going to see a baseball game, which should be fun. You all know what a fan of watching sports I am. NOT! But apparently, going to such a game in Seoul is quite a spectacular event. The crowd really gets into it, there are cheerleaders… And…etcetera, I guess. It should be fun.
And, tomorrow, I am going to the doctor’s for the famous Seoul visa applicant medical checkup. Four of us teachers are going for a regular checkup and various random tests. I have heard stories about that place I’d rather not repeat here on the internet. Now THAT should brighten me right up! Did you know the results are sent directly to the school so if ever it does turn out there IS something seriously wrong with me, half of the staff will get to discuss it before I even HEAR about it.
Anyways, I’m too tired to put much else on here right now but I realize I haven’t sent much news. I do put pictures up to make up for it, though. After the medical fiesta tomorrow, I’m going to see a baseball game, which should be fun. You all know what a fan of watching sports I am. NOT! But apparently, going to such a game in Seoul is quite a spectacular event. The crowd really gets into it, there are cheerleaders… And…etcetera, I guess. It should be fun.
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