Week 5 Coming to a Close

Good Evening,
I'm comfortably sitting on my a pillow on my kitchen floor, I have my laptop on top of another pillow resting on my thighs and I'm watching Tom Selleck being interviewed by Jay Leno on the Tonight Show. Ahhh, all the amenities of home; He also has an an actor named Carlos Mencia starring in a movie called The Heartbreak Kid; Is that a current movie that is out now? By the way, I want to let people know & encourage everyone reading my blog to write a comment based on anything you read here. I want to thank Jerry & Dave N. for posting the first two comments on my Sept. 28th Blog entry. My parents have been telling me how much people enjoy reading my blog back home and I would love to hear people's comments, feedback, questions, insights, etc. Please feel free to post a comment at any time. I really enjoy watching this Armed Forces Network TV channel, which comes in live from Osan Air Force base, Camp Casey, Seoul & Daegu. It has all kinds of news for American service men, and their families living here; I found out of some bowling competition they have going on in Daegu that I might want to check out. I enjoyed watching ER, CSI Miami & Everyone Loves Raymond tonight. Shows that I never watched at home, but I'm watching now.

I forgot to tell everyone that two weeks ago, when I received my first paycheck, I went out and purchased a brand new 21 speed mountain bike with dual suspension; It cost me a whopping 80,000 WON approx $80; I love it and have enjoyed riding it all around town, around the river, thorough town, into the mountains, etc.

After I got back from Busan during Chusok vacation, we (about 15 of us) gathered along the river on an absolutely gorgeous day to relax, play cards, drink beer, and cook an amazing samyeopsal (Korean BBQ) with two grills that other English teachers brought with them. We stayed there from 2pm until 8pm when I left to go home, and they continued on the a Norebang (singing/Karaoke room). Very popular here in Korea. We only taught 2 days that week.

This week has been decent; I've been feeling kinda tired, drained and a bit stressed out this week. Mainly due to the fact that I haven't been sleeping well at all this entire week; I've been staying up way too late & have had trouble falling asleep mainly due to these annoying mosquitoes that fly around my room constantly. I constantly have the fly swatter in my hands looking to kill several mosquitoes per night; but they keep on coming in again from somewhere else. I will have to go buy myself a mosquito net which a lot of other teachers use here. I bought a nice new, pink pillow this week for $5.00 and I enjoy have a second pillow to prop my computer on and to use as a mock couch. I have no really comfortable piece of furniture to lounge out on in my apt. I'm probably going to buy a nice new computer chair tomorrow b/c the kitchen chair I'm using starts to hurt after a while. I've been going back & forth up & down all week long amongst a wide range of feelings and emotions; Being a lil scared, lonely, tired, achy, etc. I went to receive acupuncture 3x this week which relaxed me and calmed me down a bit. I'm missing a lot of my friends back home and especially miss my girlfriend Flo. Then I have days when I just absolutely love being all the way out here in Korea. This kids are all so wonderful, cute, and still very excited to see me every time I walk down the hall (and walk down the street for that matter). I would say that 70% of the kids who see me on the street wave to me, smile, and say hi. They even wave & shout to me from moving buses & vans. It's really quite exciting and makes me feel very loved & appreciated. You really do get a small sense of what is like to be a mini-celebrity. The biggest thing that I learned about myself this week is that I'm always so worried with keeping busy, having things to do, instead of just staying home once in a while & relaxing. Slowing down, relaxing, breathing, meditating, reading the bible, etc These are ALL things I did here on Wednesday during my day off from school. It was so so great, relaxing and peaceful. I was so excited b/c I got to speak with Flo on Wednesday via Skype and actually got to see her sitting at home in her apt. via webcam and she got to see me on my webcam; it was so so great great to see her live after a long 5 weeks of not seeing her at all. That day I started re-reading a book called "The Power of NOW", I read a book on Korean culture and history, worked out with this new exercise/pilates ball a friend here gave me; Finally at 8pm that night I left the house for the first time & went for a bike ride in along in the dark back windy roads along side the mountains. During my ride back, I stopped off and dropped $.50 in to the machine by the batting cages and took about 10 hits with a bat they had there; it was very cool; I think they might actually be open 24 hours there b/c the machine takes coins just like an arcade machine; So I might have a new fun activity available to me to relieve stress, let off some stream, while at the same time improving my batting swing; All for the low price of $.50, what a deal!!!! On the way back I stopped off to buy a beer & I ran across and new flavored Ice Cream I've never seen before. It said, "Cheese & Raspberry" To my amazement, I turned out to be the most delicious, creamiest, cheesecake flavored ice cream with raspberry swirls!!! yum yum!!!!!
That basically highlights week 4 & week 5. Until next time, I look forward to hearing & reading some comments from people reading my blog. Have a Great Friday everyone (Thurs for those of you in back in the US).