Easter, 4 months, the Present!

It's been a while since I posted, but here's a quick update!

I (finally) signed up for the gym when the weather brightened up in May, and began running again! I love it! I feel more energetic and healthier! My running friend and I signed up for official 10Ks this upcoming weekend, and hopefully I'll be in good enough shape to do a half marathon at the end of May!

I recently picked up drawing again. Hm. I enjoy drawing, but the thing that kills me is that- it doesn't take me long to draw something. It takes me about 15-20 minutes to do a drawing, and I begin telling myself that it's not good (enough) simply because I didn't put enough time into it. Anyways, here's a drawing that I did just recently. I want to learn new ways of expressing myself, artistically. Any suggestions?

I purchased a ticket to go to Mongolia for May 4-10th! I'm not sure what I will be doing yet, but it's a solo trip, and I'm super excited for this adventure!!! It's going to be so much fun!!! :-)

I went to Gyeongju (north of Busan) to observe the cherry blossom in mid April--it was quite beautiful. The air was fresh, everything was within bike-able distance, and the parks had calm and peaceful auras about them. It's nice to see more of Korea.



Apparently, I made the mistake of not checking my mail for my gas bills (they tend to post anything money-related on my door), and umm...my bill for 3 months of Korea added up to over $400.00. Haha, lesson learned---do not turn your heat on at all times, and still check your mail!

This country's growing on me :-) My students are adorable, I've been very fortunate to have awesome, caring co-teachers, and I made friends with some really fantastic Koreans. I think I'm slowly learning to do some things right- better late than never, right?!! haha I love the communal showers, the sharing of everything, the food, easy internet access, and the fact that they love giving away food. Oh yeah--victory! haha OOH and the school lunches are pretty good also!!

4 months seems a bit surreal. There's so many things I want to do and see before I leave---such as a visit to the DMZ, Jeju Island, more of Seoul, and learn some Korean. (I know. I've been stubborn enough, haha)

Oooh! I'm learning how to bake and cook!! Here's something I did a couple of weeks back- a carrot cake, and it was delish! I love baking!! MM! I want to learn to make a cheesecake, a pie, and a chocolate molten cake in the next month!!



Aza Aza Fighting!! :-)

The Weekend. February 19-20th, 2011.

I went all out this weekend.

I went to the Dragon Spa, off at Yongson Metro stop. I spend the evening there, at the jimjabong. Jmjabongs are their styles of saunas/spas. There are different temperature saunas that you soak into. Many Korean families go there to hang out, relax, and um, get their scrub on. The men and women saunas are separated, but there is a floor in which both sexes can socialize together. The best part--you're naked the whole time!!! (aside from when you're on the unisex floor, because that could end up bad and you wouldn't want to take your little children there). I slept at Dragon Spa for Friday night. Thought about a lot of things.


On Saturday, I went to the Myogaksa Temple, in the middle of Seoul. I had to trek up the steep roads for about 10 minutes to reach the monastery. It was really beautiful--and strange, to see this temple, in the mess of the busy city life. I went in, changed into their orange robes, and joined the other 20 participants. About half of them were foreigners, and the other half were Koreans.


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The nun who ran the program, Yunyun, was super friendly. She had such a warm, positive aura about her--I want to be more like her. She had us introduce ourselves individually, and then she gave us an introduction into what Buddhism is. We then practiced doing prostrations, and were asked to do 108 sets of them. For each prostration, we were to put a bead into a string, so as to help us keep track of the counting, and also, for us to keep the necklace as a souvenir.



We then had a vegetarian style dinner, learned to meditate and be in the correct position, and went to bed by 10 p.m. I crashed.

Woke up the next morning, with a lot of things in my mind. Meditation is about relaxing, clearing your mind, and trying to reach nirvana. Obviously....I failed at that. The morning was a struggle. I had breakfast and left.

I was able to go to the jimjabong (again) with some wonderful girl friends, and make dinner. Rule #32, enjoy the small things. Rule #35, Do what your heart tells you.

Who pushed you down the stairs last nigh? I would have liked to have been a part of that..

Woot woot HAPPY NEW DECADE! :-)

Just think. A lot is going to change the next time I can say that, above. Such as that:

I'm probably going to be 40 lbs heavier.

I'm going to live in a standard house.

I'm going to work an 8-5 p.m. job (OH JESUS CHRIST)

I'm going to be....33 years YOUNG. (when you start saying "young", that's how you really know you're getting old)

I might be a real, mature grown-up. Who knows, probably not?

I might be in a serious relationship. (poor guy)



10 years seems like a long time, but man, how time flies. Come to think of it, I only have about 7-8 more months in Korea... I still need to do a lot of things here!!! :-)