"Dancing in the Dark"

I am still a rookie at this living abroad thing, but I would hazard a guess that, for an american, the roughest part of the year might very well be the Thanksgiving-Christmas corridor.  If I wasn't missing the home-front before it would surely show now.  As it would happen, the Christmas weekend would be slightly heavier than the others.  Last thursday I made it official, I inked my contract extension.  I had thought about this extensively even before I had filed the paperwork for the extension, this was/is the right decision, I have no doubt about that.  It just happened to occur a day before I would have to say goodbye to 12 of my fellow EMU peers were finishing up there teaching and leaving Korea to go back home.  Saying goodbye to these friends was bittersweet, it was a great experience to have shared with them but sad to see them go. I have solace in the fact that I will, eventually, see them again.  This was just the first round of goodbyes that I have had to say.  The goodbyes were said on the 24th, and on the 25th I had a conversation with my English friend, Dave...  He remarked on the realization that this would be the first Christmas that he was not spending with his family, an obvious but profound statement.  Together we spent Christmas youtube-ing our favorite songs (holiday and otherwise), having some delicious korean food for lunch, then meeting some Korean friends for dinner.
In all honesty, the dinner pulled everything back into adjustment and focus.  Christmas in Korea more resembles Valentines Day (socially) than the western take on christmas with spending time with families, diner and the like.  Here, it is a true couples holiday and that is about it.  A friends Co-Teacher, Jinny, had planned a 싱길 크리스마스 파티, literally "Singles Christmas Party".  It was a true experience, the food was great, the place brews their own beer (dare I say the best I've had in Korea), all you can eat and drink for 20000 won...  I plan on going back.  Soon.  As it were, Dave, HeeSung, and I were the only guys at this "Singles X-mas", with 7 ladies.  Dave remarked later saying, "it's not everyday where I dine with 7 other ladies, less often when they are all that good looking".  I paraphrased that last quote, but Dave had said earlier that day about how he wanted to start sounding wiser, like Ghandi.  Whether or not that was "wise" remains to be seen.

I have to say I botched a skype date with my family that was supposed to happen after dinner in Michigan (5am in Korea).  I had set my alarm to go off the day prior at 5:00am instead of the day following.  This is not how alarms work, in this dimension at least.  What added insult to injury was that when I rolled over to check and see what time I actually woke up I saw that it was 8:50am, too far past to be fashionably late, and 10 min before I was supposed to be teaching my 1st day of English camp.  I broke some speed records getting into my classroom with 2 min to spare.  Luckily, my 5th and 6th graders were as apt in their punctuality as I was, and my rush into school was not overly apparent.

I've glossed over a few minor adventures, I went on a ski trip the weekend before.  The whole of my ski experience can be summarized with saying that I am from Michigan, I learned on snow covered mountains of trash, and coasted down a few bigger hills up north in the Lower Peninsula.  Korea on the other hand is a country of mountains.  Not exactly the Rockies or Alps, but deffinatley bigger than any bump the people ski down in the Mitten.  It was a great time, and I hear the mountains in the Northeast are even better!  I will definitely go again.

A month ago I had a grand plan to go somewhere over new years for my vacation, that plan fizzled out because of procrastination and a hundred other things.  I had accepted defeat, and resigned to realize that I would be spending New Years in Korea.  It was on Christmas day when a final push was set into motion...  Anywhere cheap, this was the only stipulation.  Not 12 hours ago did I book our tickets, and in 36 hours we will be in the air flying to Taiwan!  This is the sort of last minute planning that would make Chris Moeller proud.  Different country, different language, one American, one Briton, what is the worst that can happen?  Don't answer that.

Here is to a new year, a new chapter in an increasingly dynamic saga, a new ring of growth, and maybe, a bit more knowledge as well.

We have normality... Anything you still can't cope with is therefore your own problem."

A lull in adventures, as well as realizing I am an expat for at least the foreseeable future made me establish some routines and things to make my life seem more permanent and less touristy.

The 1st thing on the agenda was to nut up and get a gym membership.  But where?  And how?
After talking to some of the teachers it turns out I had two options...a cheap city owned center that is an hour walk away, or a more expensive gym that is an 8 minutes walk from my apt.  I ultimately chose the closer one after convincing myself I would never walk the hour to the other one even if I had a membership.  The membership includes gym 에오로빅 privileges and entrance to the spa 스파 and sauna 사오나 in Korea you just call it a 찜질방.  For those of you not in the loop, a 찜질방 usually has a few different temperature hot tubs(pools, really), a cold tub, a steam sauna, and a dry sauna.  More elaborate ones can have sleeping rooms with beds, and salt baths etc. A good time.  The gym is pretty regular, I am still figuring out if it is okay to wear my own workout clothes instead of the prison clothes they give me when I check in... A grey shirt to work out in?  This does my sweaty self no favors at all.
By the second week of going, I realized this... I didn't buy a membership to the gym with a sauna, I bought a membership to a sauna with a gym.  At least this is how it would appear after I spend 30 minuets working out and a hour and a half in the sauna.  Judge me, I love me some sauna (Finnish roots showing through here?).

Gym membership?  Check.
Costco membership to negate any gym benefits?  Check.
Logic?  Dead.

I miss having a piano at my fingertips (bad pun...see: amysund),  but my mentor teacher asked around the school and found one I can play on mondays and sometimes wednesdays.  It is in one of the 6th grade teachers rooms so I can only play it when we both do not have to teach.  I learned how to say 피아노 좀 써도 되나요 to ask if I can use it.  It felt good to pound out some Brahms again, even if it was a little rough after not playing since late July!  I must not have sounded too horrible because a few of the teachers were talking (gossiping) about it the next day.  I happened upon a ordinary looking doughnut shop in my town and to my surprise I walk upstairs and there is a piano!  What is even better is it is pretty dead at night so sometimes I am the only one there, or there are only a few people mulling about.  If it isn't too crowded I help myself to a little piano, if I am alone I and get down to shedding some licks. I don't think the owners mind and I try not to be obnoxious.

Piano playing outlet?  Check.
Rental fee: Tea and doughnut?  Worth it.

Last weekend I went to my Mentor Teacher's wedding, I was excited to see what the Korean take on "wedding" was.  Getting there was an adventure, the invitation was in all Korean (not surprising since I was the only english speaker invited).  I got basic instruction from my MT the day before... "go to Daegu, go to Hyundai apt store, get on one of the 3 busses waiting there, sit on the bus for 3 1/2 hours, get off, eat lunch, see marriage, repeat in reverse order.".  Easy...not.  I had to get up at 6am to make a 7am train, grab some breakfast, walk around, find dept store.  This much was easy.  When I got to the store there were not 3 busses waiting there, there were 17.  Some were clearly not going to the wedding because they were full of people dressed like they were going to climb a mountain.  Some had people dressed regularly, fancy, sporty, oddly.  So I did the tourist thing and pulled out the invitation and looked  confused.  After walking around for a while showing it to people I finally found the right group, I met my MT's brother and mother there.  Apparently Baek (MT) had let them know a confused looking American was going to show up for the wedding.  They were helpful in escorting me to the right bus!  Baek told me I could call her if I had any problems, but I told her she was crazy and I wasn't going to call her to help me out on her wedding day.  Selfless, but dumb.  I brought along my friend Tarrah, and it was nice to have somebody to talk to and share looks of confusion and surprise.  Once we arrived to the place we piled out of the busses, up 4 flights of stairs and into a lobby where the bride was in a room on a chair (throne) to take pictures with.  I was met by some teachers and people from my school, they seemed surprised and happy to see me there, I walked into the picture room to see Baek decked out in white talking a mile a minute with some guests only to hear her blurt out "OOOH Michael HI!", this was followed by everyone giggling.  Awesome.  Before the wedding, everyone eats lunch.  I liked this, and ate lots of food.
The wedding itself is a pretty casual affair, there was the parents (lighting the wrong candles and having to start over), the MC announcing everything, the dress primper, fixing and primping non-stop, and vows, the post vows bad saxophone player (not me) with midi jam track, the post sax ballad groom norebang dance session, and the postlude (no kiss).

Korean wedding?  Check.
Weird-ed out?  Check.
30 min or less?  Yup.

Korea does optometry well.  Just like how medical treatment is outrageously overpriced in the US, so is getting glasses.  Korea simplifies it tremendously, why it isn't this simple in the US is mind-boggling.  This is how it went down... 7pm on a Friday, I walk into a Optometry store.  I communicate that I would like new glasses, he takes my current glasses and a machine analysed the prescription, five min later I am picking out new frames.  Frames start out at 10000\ or ~8.50-9.00 dollars, I splurge getting 25000\ frames (20 bucks) and reduced thickness lenses (because I am blind) total is 50000\.  Nice.  This is the point in time where I would wait 2 weeks for the store to send out for lenses & frames or something to make me wait, not the case in Korealand.  They have a lens making machine in the back, he tells me 20 min.  Well, okay.  Sure enough, for under 50 bucks and in 30 min I have some new specs, with no insurance.  Wut.  I spent more money with insurance the last time I bought glasses.  Take notes bloated US health and wellness industry.  In addition, no appointment AND at 7pm on a Friday.  Work ethic.

Sexy Specs?  Check.
₩on for days?  Check.
Glasses for every outfit I own?  Why not.

I have been practicing my Korean with my co-teacher.  I can order food without pictures now.  Moovin' on up...

Two Douglas Adams quotes in one post?  Why not, I'm feeling very cool and froody (Guide reference) .

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be."