day of deflation

aka. . . dawn of the unconscious.

(pics of most of this have already been posted- but i thought i’d try to fill in the gaps)

let’s start out two weeks ago or so. the monday before halloween was our halloween field trip for our students. a pretty good time over all. . . plus i got to wear my sweet baby seal costume.

following the halloween field trip, we learned that one of our kindy students had contracted h1n1. later that day the school decided to shut down for the morning/ kindergarten session for the remainder of the week.

wednesday all the teachers showed up at school for h1n1 testing, including the new teacher who had arrived around midnight the night before. quite the welcoming scene i would assume.

i think it was a good show for the school, to have all the teachers checked. the decision to close certainly wasn’t an easy one, and we’ll only know how it all pans out over time. the good news was that we all came back h1n1 negative. elementary classes continued as usual and we had a few mornings off, which was rather pleasant.

that saturday i skipped all halloween behavior in order to hang out with swon on her birthday. her family had wanted to throw a large dinner and include me. it’s a nice thought, and i haven’t had time to meet her other sister. it’s something i look forward to, but every time swon and i get together it’s a production. many of her friends, or many of my friends. . .or trying to get to a show on time. . . or trying to fit time in around her schedule. when i said that i thought i couldn’t handle the whole family thing she was relieved as well. all she wanted to do was hang out in our pj’s cooking and watching tv- as a change of pace. so that’s what we did saturday. her mom cooked and we had a cake. . . and i’ve discovered that although i want to compliment how delicious her cooking is. . . i need to hold back. any time i say i like something she runs to the fridge or range to get or prepare more to put in front of me. . . i simply cannot fit it all in. . . the laws of physics rule against it.

(as a turn of events, swon gave me a present for her birthday. she found this amazing book all about seoul. like a lonely planet, but even better. great pictures, descriptions and recommendations . seoul selection guides. the more i and my friends look through it, the better it gets and the more they want their own copy.)


side note* there was the possibility of swon and i meeting someone at the airport as well- but that was postponed. but i do want it known that i fully intended to wear the baby seal costume up to the arrival’s gate as long as security let me through.

note* the rule that it must always rain when i am hanging out with swon in seoul held up. her mom has never met me dry. i always walk into her house looking a little like a drowned rat dripping onto her floor.

swon had sunday off as well and i wanted to chip away at some of my site seeing list. we drove out to suwon to check out the fortress.

i let a couple of the newer teachers know i would be at the fortress and that i’ve heard it’s really nice to walk around. hazel also expressed interest in meeting up with swon to give her some happy birthday wishes.

with some delays and cell phone negotiating we all met up at the fortress and walked around a bit of the perimeter. it was kinda chilly, but the fall colors were pretty nice. i don’t think swon had been there before- always nice to have a tourist usher you around your own country :) she said she was thinking of bringing her mom around since it was so pretty.

the group of us headed to the palace area for a military reenactment type show where we planned to meet up with hazel as well. she was delayed because she felt she needed to bake a cake for swon! she cracks me up. but she did show up with some madeline cookies and a small cake for swon that was totally delicious.

we all had a warm lunch before walking through the palace a bit. i still had some of swon’s mom’s leftovers in my bag, so i got to share those as well.

sometime before the sun started to set we decided to head off before it got too chilly.

monday was a normal schedule again, which was hard a little harsh on the psyche after such a nice break.

the week sped by in anticipation for a visitor.

a few weeks prior i heard from an estranged friend from college. he said he’d be in china for a while and would like to jump over to korea for a few days and visit. at first i thought he’d be here for swon’s birthday, but it got delayed a week.

note* i realize there was a time in my life where we were all able to schedule things without cool communication devices. . . but i am far too much in favor of my gadgetry. korea doesn’t really makes things easier with their unique cell services. if anyone intends to visit me for any length of time, i will pressure you into renting a korean phone. it takes so much anxiety, guess work, and uncertainty out of the equation. which reminds me, what the f am i going to do for a phone while i’m state side?!

anyway. . .

brandt arrived thursday evening. i hadn’t been to the airport since i got here, and i kinda forgot how far away it was. so, i was later than i hoped and i didn’t anticipate losing so much time to bus travel that evening. we set to meet at the dunkin donuts. well, there were three that i walked by on two different floors. . . luckily i caught up with him trying to contend with an atm machine. he grabbed a snack and we set back to catch a bus to ansan.

i knew we’d be getting out a lot that weekend for meals, so we had a quick dinner at home before i dragged him off to hang out bar for quiz night. i also tried to give him ideas of what he could check out while i was at work the next day. i ended up handing him the book that swon gave me the weekend before and a t money pass for the train.

he ended up in insadong on friday. a good choice i think. he found some nice artwork and a vegetarian restaurant. . . i showed him some pictures of what the area looked like during buddha’s birthday for comparison and inspiration. while at work i was able to score a borrowed bike from a friend of a friend which would come in handy later.

friday night we joined my co-workers for a work dinner. one teacher leaving. . . another teacher starting. . . so we must celebrate. . . eat, drink, and noraebong. after dinner, the brighton teachers headed to a local bar for round two. i took brandt on a tour through ansan lake park. i was a little disappointed. none of the cool light up elements were lit, and none of the speed skaters were training. . . guess it was a little too chilly that evening. but a nice ride.

afterward we met up with everyone at the bar to finish up round two and find out if there would be a round three. the evening started to lose steam but there was a final push for round three. even though brandt’s visit was really short, i felt it was a moral imperative to get him into a noraebong room. we were both tired, but an hour of flashy lame disco lights and loud singing gave me a second wind.

i took a chance on our saturday schedule. go see something in and around seoul? get to something cultural? . . . or. . . participate in a scavenger hunt that a friend put together? i had planned on doing the hunt before i knew brandt would be here. . . so i just decided to go for it. besides, it included a lot of bike riding, which i thought he might appreciate.

sadly, the event didn’t have many participants show up- i felt bad for the guy that organized it- he put a lot of thought and work into the whole thing. . . not to mention that he let brandt borrow his bike!

on the other hand. . . we had a fantastic time. we were on a team of five, we were given a map and tasks to accomplish all over ansan to rack up points.

i think one of our biggest draw backs was that we didn’t have a korean speaker on our team. it’s difficult enough to approach a taxi driver to ask to sit in his seat to take a picture using mostly hand gestures. . . but try to mime a way to ask someone if you can give them a piggy back ride and take a picture- without seeming creepy.

the ride was great. i saw new places that i want to visit again. . . and the tasks were a lot of fun. (as you might have imagined from the pictures.)

the whole thing culminated at a bar where our scores were tallied. the winners had a score of 85. . . we had 82. . . pretty respectable.

we left the bar around 6. . . and our evening was not over.

i had planned on meeting with swon for dinner, and i thought it would be nice to get back to seonyudo island park again.

swon and ju-won picked us up and we found a great bibimbap place. . . a really nice dinner with some of the best dokpokki (sp?) i’ve had yet.

we drove over to seonyudo and walked around for a bit . . . chatting, joking, taking pictures. . . and par for the course. . . it rained.

we missed the last set of trains and got back to ansan by cab.

the next morning i went out to the airport to see brandt off. i was pretty exhausted. i accidently bought a bus ticket back to the wrong station in ansan. . . but it was only a longer cab ride to my apartment.

while passing out on the bus i was exceedingly annoyed by someone who was playing their music too loud for me to really fall asleep. took me about three minutes to realize the music i was annoyed by was in my own headphones, and i simply needed to turn down the volume. told you- i was tired.

brandt’s visit was completely unexpected, kinda surreal- haven’t seen him in over ten years. . . but really nice. like after seeing trevor, i’m feeling kinda out of sorts. i’m missing things that were once familiar to me. missing people. . . missing my old job. . . or my old jobs. . . i do question my decisions still. . . but at the same time, i really like that i’m here.

with all the recent excitement, i rested uneasily through sunday.

this past week hasn’t let up much. preparation for finals. . . some finals administered, some held off due to a high number of absences. thursday evening- a night out with hazel to see a dance show. friday- field trip to a science museum. friday night- a night of cooking, chatting, eating and apples to apples at my place. the drama of getting my boss to finally book flights for the holidays for me. . .

i’m still tired. so. . . nothing doing today. if i wanna be unconscious. . . i will. if i wanna watch lame tv. . . i will. but i’m not leaving the apartment (barring an emergency) or getting out of my pj’s. plus, i need to do some cleaning. . . and apparently, some blogging.

it would seem i’ve done enough blogging. . . time to clean a bit. . . or sleep.