Well, I will be finished with my teaching contract and will be departing Korea in four months. Perfect time to start blogging again. haha I can't believe I've been here almost two years. It's insane, really. There's been a lot of good times and a lot of bad times. I have been more than frustrated at times...downright furious, actually. Well, time to take on the rest of my time here and make the best of it.
Tonight, I got a little haircut at a tiny place on the way home. I've been going there for a while now. I've always been fearful of getting my haircut (always meaning all of my life); you can imagine my fearfulness of going to a Korean barber. One time in the beginning, I went to a place recommended by another expat because one of the stylists speak English (actually lived in Canada for a year or so); however, they charged me about 25,000won (about $22) for a trim, and she constantly bugged me about my terrible scalp and kept reminding me of their treatment that cost $100/month. After that, I went to a friend of a friend for about 7,000 won ($5). I didn't really like that person's personality so I stopped going there. After that, I finally settled on this place. The owner knows a little English, and I can get by in Korean now to tell them I just need a trim. It's a good deal 8,000 won and that includes wash & shampoo. I seem to get the same guy every time, and I think he has been working on this English a little. He seemed to have more phrases to tell me this time. I thought it was funny to see my brown hair over the sea of black hair on the floor. Makes me feel unique.
In other news besides my hair (I hate talking about my hair...really, I do), the yellow dust season is in full swing now. That's when the sand from the deserts of China come blowing into Korea. In the past, it wasn't so bad, but deforestation has caused it to get worse every year. Like last year, I have so much mucus in the lungs (you're welcome). It's horrible. I actually went hiking a couple of weekends ago (pictured), and it happened to be the most hazardous days of the year. Our hiking leader is a determined one. This is one of the toughest parts about life here. If you live in Korea, I would recommend checking out the yellow dust monitor operated by the US Army in Seoul and don't go hiking like a crazy man on bad days.
It looks as though the government is starting a registry of American teachers in Korea. This person's school was phoned up by the Ministry of Education asking the owners to report any American teachers working at the school. Sounds a little scary to me.
Well, the past week has been filled with activity here on the peninsula.
First off, the former president, Roh Moo-hyun, commits suicide while the government was investigating him for accepting bribes during his term. His death suddenly turned into a political ploy. Opponents of the current Korean administration (Lee Myung-bak) are using his death to blame Lee for employing harsh tactics and for basically ruining the nation. The day that he died an alter was immediately setup in front of my neighborhood metro station to allow people to bow and pay respects while someone on a loud speaker attracted an audience by denouncing President Lee. From what I hear, these alters are all around Seoul.
North Korea decided today to continue their craziness. They thought it would a fine idea to conduct an underground nuclear test while test firing some missiles at the same time. I think someone is just cranky they aren't getting their way. More here and here. Let's hope the place doesn't get nuked while I'm here. The Koreans don't seem to get too worked up about these things, though. The US Embassy did send me a notice about the test and reminded to always be prepared in case of a sudden evacuation.
Also, swine flu seems to be raging here on the ROK. More Koreans are being confirmed to have the virus. This past weekend, an American that recently came here to teach was confirmed to have the virus. Another American was discovered to have the virus today. That person also recently came to Korea to teach English. The school is a big chain here, and they send all of there new teachers to a big orientation/training session in Seoul. So, that person was in close contact with all kinds of other new teachers. That person has since been put in quarantine. Also, every Western that came in contact with that American has been rounded up in ambulances by the government and taken to a hospital so they can be isolated. People stuck in the hospital are blogging here, here, and here. An expat blogger in Korea gives a nice round-up of news regarding the situation here. News articles can be read here and here.
There are rumors in my town (Bucheon) that a foreigner at a big English school next to mine was involved with that week-long training session. The English school is big chain here in Korea and has decided to shut down for the next week to avoid more infections.
I'm a little worried about what the means for us foreigners. I fear that Koreans are going to get really worried by the "American sickness" and shun us in public. Maybe even the government will round us up and quarantine us or deport us; who knows. I heard that new teachers that has arrived after May 11 will have to undergo a home quarantine. If parents get really concerned, they will start pulling their students from our school to avoid the virus coming from foreigners.
Today, I told one of my classes that I was a little sick. They instantly asked if it was the "pig virus." I, of course, told them it probably was. One of the kids told me that I needed to eat lots of kimchi in order to get rid of the "pig virus." Another kid said it was the "America virus," and he then asked me if I was an "American people." Once I said yes, they all gasped in unison and pushed their chairs back away from me. That's just an example of what I think this might develop into. Koreans are already suspicious about letting foreigners into the country; this will only heighten their unfounded fears.
This video is as I entered the room to find all of the teachers from my school waiting for me:
Also, last Wednesday my 6pm Pineapple class had the lights off in the classroom. As I entered, the confetti was popped and soap-bubble spray was emptied. The kids started singing "Happy Birthday" and had a heart-shaped chocolate cake with candles that spelled out "Happy Birthday." Wow, I was so shocked. I never really expected these kids to do something like that. They spent their own money to pull this off and even bought me some pens and pencils as gifts. So sweet! They weren't that excited about starting our lesson, though, once the cake was finished.
May 15 is the day of two big events in Korea - Teacher's Day and my birthday. The day started out really nice. As I was walking into the teacher's room, the "Happy Birthday" banner was up and everyone had on birthday hats; then, they broke out into song. I was a little shocked. Actually, I was pretty dizy and tired because I had been up pretty late having a midnight birthday party. It was a great, surprising way to start off the day.
As the kindergarten kids started to arrive, the goodies started to roll in. All of my kindy kids brought me something in celebration of Teacher's Day. Here's a little list of some things I got: chocolate, Bennigan's gift certificate, aftershave, shampoo, a huge canister of soy bean sauce, cookies, men's cosmetics, and more. Actually, the most interesting gift was a box of 2 pairs of panties ("panties" is konglish for "underwear"); I never thought I would get some unmentionables as a gift from a kid. Our boss (Grace) decided to buy all of us foreigners a huge bottle of wine from France. I don't really know much about wine, but it looks quite fancy and expensive. I do know it came from an expensive department store in town. I was a little embarrassed that she only gave to the foreigners and not the Korean teachers.
I've got to explain that a couple of days before my birthday I was asking some Korean teachers (Erin & Elly) what they thought we should do for my birthday. I told them that I wanted to have samgipsal/galbi for dinner; they got excited and told me that knew the perfect place and would take care of all the details. I left it to that and asked them to invite all the Korean teachers/staff. On the day before my birthday, those Korean teachers told me that quite a few of the other Koreans couldn't make it. It was a little disappointing, but I still had a few others that said they could come.
Finally, my birthday came. People kept telling me throughout the day, "oh, sorry, Shawn, but I can't come tonight." People were dropping like flies. More and more kept canceling as the day progressed. It was rather disappointing. One foreigner told me he had to go help a friend in Seoul that was being kicked out of their apartment; the British couple left a note on my desk saying they had left and couldn't make it to the party because they were feeling sick. Even the girls that were going to take me to a special place left without saying anything to me. When classes were over, my good friend Joey told me that they couldn't make it. Elly sent me a text saying "oh, i'm sorry." That was really disappointing because Elly had told me earlier in the week that "of course" she would come to my party and mentioned it might be my last in Korea. By the end of the work day, only three others said they could make it. I was almost to tears, actually. Our kindy classes have a phrase of the day everyday, and we joked that "sorry, Shawn" should have been the day's phrase. I think Joey felt my immense disappointment, and he had us all have a group hug.
We finally left the school, and we rode away in Joey's car. He told me we were going to stop by my place and drop of all of my gifts and stuff from Teacher's Day. However, when we got near, he decided to wait until later because all of us were pretty hungry. He said that he knew a great place to eat around my place. We got there, and he mentioned going to a back room so we wouldn't bother others with our English. I thought it was a good idea, but I thought we couldn't have a room since it was just the three of us. I think the waitresses told Joey it was fine so we went to where an empty room was. As Joey went to open the door to the darkened room, I noticed a hand in the window. Joey opens the door and sure enough everyone is there! I was so shocked! As I walked in, the confetti poppers went off as they sang "Happy Birthday" and I blew out the candles. There was every single person from the office...every single person that told me that they couldn't come! I was so stunned and so happy! We had a great meal of galbi together. That's what I wanted for the night - for all of us to be together. Literally everyone was there from the school. The kindy manager mentioned how this type of thing never happens; it is almost impossible to bring everyone together. All of the foreign teachers, all of the Korean teacher, the receptionists, the help teachers, and even the boss. It was quite a feat! They've never done anything like this before - not for any other Korean or foreigner now or in the past. It certainly made me feel really special. The boss even gave me a pair of Nike sneakers and then paid for half of the total bill for the meal (that something that really never happens). I had always wanted a surprise party so it was great to finally have one!
After dinner, we then headed out to a pub/restaurant near the school. The boss (I'll starting calling her Grace 'cause the boss thing is getting annoying) took us there. She ordered all kinds of food and drinks for us. I had to cut the cake here; apparently, its sort of tradition that the birthday person cuts the cake for everyone. Grace decided that it would be best to put some of the icing on my face. I then had to give a couple of pieces to the owner, another Korean birthday tradition. My group applauded for my bravery. We then spent hours together hanging out and having a good time together. Around midnight, all of the Korean girls had to head home because they had to make it back home before their curfew. Us foreigners, Grace, and her kids stayed for a while longer. Grace was willing to go to a singing room with us (even though she really doesn't like it), but we insisted she go home with her kids since it was so late.
Us foreigners then went to another pub/restaurant. We went there just to hang out some more. They told the owner that it was my birthday so they played a techno birthday song and had lights flashing throughout the restaurant. The owner then brought us some free chicken, and he said "for your birthday." Joey then rejoined us after he ran a late-night errand. After a while, we all headed out. Joey drove me home, and he stayed with me for a little while so I wouldn't have to open presents from home alone.
It was such a great birthday, probably one of the best!
Well, it's been a while since this happened, but I thought I should share. We had a hastily prepared St. Patrick's Day activity for our kindergarten kids. Decorations were put up the night before and papers were printed off for hours. The kids made cards, decorated, read stories, wore green, and took pictures.
Apple class (5-year-olds...3-4 in the US)
Watermelon class (6-year-olds...4-5 in the US) We had to retake this picture a few times.
I woke up Friday morning to the sound of the radio announcer talking about a contest for free tickets to the aquarium in Busan. I thought I would give it a shot since all I had to do was send in a text. Sure enough, someone from the radio station called me later that morning to let me know that I had won and that they would send me the tickets through the mail.
As I walking to my first kindergarten class, my 5-year-olds (3-4 in American age) saw me and ran out to hug me. Billy even gave me a sausage stick. I was then greeted by my 6-year-olds (4-5 in American age), and two of them handed me flowers that they had picked for me. Later, another kindy student gave me a pack of cookies. During the afternoon classes/elementary kids, a former student gave me a chicken-shaped piggy bank; he had gave me a music CD a couple of days earlier.
It feels kind of nice to know that my kids think about me outside of school and get something for me. It's so cute; I can't help but love them!
I was talking with my friend tonight about teaching at my school. He mentioned how the boss really wants me to stay longer (past my contract ending date_. He told me that I am the best teacher (foreign or Korean) at the school and that I am a "natural educator." Oh, that made me feel so good. Sometimes, I wonder about my teaching ability. I usually don't really get much feedback from the other teachers so I'm really curious about how I'm doing. It felt good to hear something so reassuring.
Tonight, we had a meeting of foreign teachers with the manager. He shared some complaints that our boss had about us. I was really worried what he was going to tell me. I was told to "calm down" because the boss is worried about my health; she's worried that I'm working too hard. haha
I want to do my best in whatever I do; it's great to hear such reassuring comments from others!
Things have been terribly busy lately. I know I promised some pictures, but I haven't had time at all. My parents are currently visiting so we've been busy roaming about Seoul. It feels good to finally check some places off my "to see" list. I also found out that my schedule has changed once again. I was off today so I'll see tomorrow what damage has been done.
Well, the water park idea didn't really pan out. We wanted to go because it was only about $10 after 4; we thought it would be a great way to unwind after work. I was really looking forward to it for days. We basically run there to get there before 7pm. As soon as we run through the mall and make it through the maze of elevators and stairs, we discover that all the lights are off and no one is around. Talk about some major disappointment!!
We did hang out for most of the night, but it was still a little sad that we missed out on some water delight. We are going to try it out again today hoping that it was closed just because it was mid-week.
I noticed tonight that I wasn't freezing my behind off as I walked home. Oh, it feels like Spring is heading to Korea! It couldn't come any sooner!
The yellow dust has certainly made its way here. Annually, yellow dust/sand from China makes an invasion into Korea and kills everyone's lungs. I've heard that China has undergone major deforestation so there are fewer trees to catch the dust/sand that blows in from the desert; it makes its way to Korea. I've noticed some mucus build-up going in me. Hopefully, it won't get too bad. If you are so interested in my health, here is a website where you track yellow dust levels in Seoul.
Tomorrow, I'm heading to a water park in town. The tickets are 10 bucks after 4pm. Some coworkers and I are going to head over there after work (about 6:30) and see what we can do in 2 hours.
In my previous kindy class, I had a problem with kids wanting to go to the bathroom way to much. They were constantly asking me to go. I knew that it wasn't possible that they needed to go so much. If one kid asked, they all asked. I talked about it with my Korean co-teacher, and she said I really needed to limit. I implemented a system where a sticker would be taken away if they had to visit the bathroom. It worked. Kids would go between classes (with my helpful reminder) and wouldn't ask. One day, a very smart boy named Jack asked me to go to the bathroom. I told him he could but that meant he would lose a sticker. He just stared at me with an intense glare. I could tell he had a huge internal struggle between bathroom and sticker. After a minute or so, I could see some water gathering in his eyes so I told him just to go and I wouldn't erase his sticker. He just sat there with his hand in his mouth. I walk over there to try and convince him to just go. But it was too late! Pee was all over the seat and floor. The lengths these kids will go in order to keep their stickers!
Last Saturday was sort of a big date. First, it was White Day in Korea. This is similar to Valentine's Day. On VDay in Korea, the women will give chocolate to guys. On WDay (Mar 14), men will give chocolate to the girls. It's really another holiday made up by the chocolate companies. I'm not dating anyone so I really didn't give a flip. Except my lady co-workers got plently of candies while I was left empty handed.
It was also Pi Day. Think back to middle school math and the pi symbol. Remember what it equals? Pi = 3.14 = Mar 14 I was supposed to have pie, but I totally forgot to buy some.
Some friends and I did head to Seoul for Lotte World, a half indoor half outdoor theme park. It was pretty awesome. We took the subway there so we didn't walk outside for outdoors (there's an entrance gate in the station). It was almost like the Magic Kingdom except on a much smaller scale. Our first ride was a hot-air balloon that circled around the indoor part. We rode a few other rides but nothing too exciting. Some of the people I was with didn't really want to ride anything too extreme so we really spent most of the day walking around. We did get to ride the Gyro Swing, which is this huge spinning wheel that swings up over all of the buildings. Needless to say, I really want to head back sometime with some fellow thrill seekers. I was pretty beat when I got home that night.
On Sunday, I headed to Namdaemun market with some of the newbie teachers. They wanted to buy some Korean things. I ended up buying some things myself. I bought a traditional Korean game called yut. I really didn't want to go; my stomach and my body ached. I had a good time, anyways. When we walked around looking for a place to eat, our Korean manager called us because he wanted to cook dinner for us. Perfect timing! His Korean friend came over later to play yut with us. He distracted us Americans by bringing ice cream with him. Consequently, we failed in our mission to bring down the Koreans.
Wow, it's been quite a while since I last updated. I guess the winter blues got to me, and I didn't have much motivation to write something. That's so jealous of me! Anyways, I've seen many changes in the past week at my school. Not very good changes, though.
First of all, March is the start of the new school year in Korea. Don't ask me why. Actually, it's a bit strange. The kids have a huge break from public school from December until February. They go back to school for a couple of weeks, have a couple of weeks off, and then go back to move up to the next grade. Keep in mind that I work at an afterschool academy so I don't get that time off...sadly. With kids moving to different grades, that means that their schedule changes because some go to school later now. That means our school's schedule has to change. Kids are all mixed up, and most of the teachers are moved around.
On top of this, 3 of the 4 foreigners (westerns) left the school at the end of February because their contracts expired. The school hired 4 more foreigners to replace those 3. Two came from the UK, one from Ireland, the other from Cali. These teachers have never taught before and have never been to Korea before. Luckily, all of them are really nice and easy to work with (so far). Understandably, it's just been a tad confusing for them starting at an already confusing time of the year.
My schedule totally changed. Before March, I came to school at about 12 (noon); now, I have to come in at 9am to prep and teach 4 kindergarten (kindy) classes in the morning. I usually enjoy teaching kindy, but not now. My kids in the past were awesome. They only spoke English, and we had a good time together. However, my kids now can only speak Korean and don't really want to be there. I try to act crazy and get them laughing, but it is such a struggle. They even have difficulty repeating me. I can't even play games with them because they don't understand my instructions. Oh, I don't want to go to work in the mornings. I have one class of 5-year-olds (4 in US age); they can't do anything. There is one kid in there that is deathly afraid of me. She always cries when I come in and wants her mommy. However, I'm starting to think that she just hates English. She will hug me and play around with me, but she hates it when we do English work. She runs out of the classroom for a Korean. The help teacher has to sit with her out in the hallway so she can listen to us. My kindy class from before was awesome (as I mentioned); all of them are still here so they still run up to me and hug me and try to tickle me. It's sort of taunt; it just reminds me of how good I used to have it.
My afternoon/elementary classes have gone pretty good. Most of them are pretty excited and energetic, which I like. They're having fun so far so that makes me happy. Actually, I would be totally satisfied if I came in and just did afternoon classes that would be so much better. Even though it requires more planning, it's not as frustrating as kindy. I just hope it stays that way once they are all comfortable in their new classes.
I woke up to find my cookies left for Santa were gone. Santa had came! He even left out some kimchi...who would have thought it?
I started out my Christmas morning with a call back home, where the family was celebrating our annual Christmas Eve dinner. After talking to everyone back home, I then opened the presents that my family had sent me. I got plenty of Christmas Story ornaments to add to my tree. It was great to have something from my family for Christmas. Even though I was alone, I felt they were near.
After watching A Christmas Story, I then headed over to the apartment of one of the teachers at my school. She had a big Christmas brunch for everyone at our church. It was very nice to hang out with everyone and have a great breakfast. I was pretty stuffed afterwards; I felt the grease slowing moving through my body.
After watching Christmas Vacation, I then headed back to my place to meet a good friend of mine. We watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas because my other Christmas movies were not working at well. After that, he was pretty hungry so we headed out for dinner. He asked me what I wanted, and I instantly thought about the Chinese Peking Duck Christmas dinner in A Christmas Story. I said, "duck!" So he took me to a duck restaurant. Even though a whole duck wasn't served to us and I didn't get a "fa-ra-ra" rendition of Deck the Halls, it was still great. The duck was cut up a, mixed with vegetables and a spicy sauce, and prepared right at our table. We also had some duck-bone soup and fried rice.
After that, we headed over to West Sea and Incheon's Wolmido. There, we were greeted by a small amusement park where we slammed into each other with bumper cars and then tried a go on a DDR rip-off. We then walked along the boardwalk while at the same time freezing our butts off from the frigid air blowing in from the sea.
We couldn't stand the freezing air for very long so we headed back to my apartment in Bucheon. We listened to Christmas music and the only light shining was the twinkling lights from my Christmas tree. We ate some Christmas cake and just hung out. I then called my family back home, where they were just waking up and starting their Christmas morning. After wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, my friend and I watched A Christmas Story; I thought I needed to share it to other cultures. We then hung out for the rest of the night, and he spent the night here. It was great to have someone with me on Christmas night; otherwise, I might have been pretty sad.
Even though I was away from everyone that I love, I still had a good Christmas. It was especially nice since I was able to share the day with friends that I've met while here in Korea.
A fellow teacher and I decided to head to Seoul to spend Christmas Eve. What a great decision that was! We started off at City Hall, where the city has installed a giant skating ring for the citizens and visitors of Seoul. A person can skate for an hour and rent skates all for 1 buck. Talk about amazing! The ring, however, wasn't the greatest quality. The skates slipped around pretty easily and hurt the side of my ankle; the ice was also pretty chopped up. It made skating a tad difficult, but I got the hang of it after a while. My fellow teacher can't really say the same thing, though. Before skating, we bought some reindeer antlers. So being white people, we stuck out like sore thumbs. It was a good thing, though. Everyone was cheering us on, waving at us, giving us high fives, and cheerfully yelling Merry Christmas. After our hour was up, we decided we had a very successful skating run considering we didn't fall down once.
After skating, we walked around downtown Seoul and looked at all of the Christmas displays. We came up on Lotte Department Store, where we found an awesome display. The trees were covered in lights with icicle lights. The building was covered with snowflakes, ornaments, and icicles. There was even an Alice in Wonderland display. The best part was the snow! They had many snow machines (that produced soapy snow) on top of the building so the snow fell down on the sidewalks and streets...so awesome! We then went inside to find the Krispy Kreme, where we were greeted with free original glaze doughnuts. Oh, so yummy!
We then headed over to the Cheonggyecheon Stream, where a crowd met us. There was a huge wall of lights around the stream that was synchronized to pumping Christmas music. There were also huge snowflakes that hung above the stream. Although there were fewer lights than I expected, it was still pretty amazing. It really felt like Christmas was upon us. Everyone was so cheery, the music was spirity, the weather was nippy, the lights were shiny. It was awesome!
My friend and I were actually struck by how people were more focused on Jesus. There were lots of crosses used as decorations around town (including atop the tree at city hall). The Christmas music was mostly all Christian Christmas music (some of it was even just Christian and not Christmas).
We were actually almost like celebrities. Everywhere we walked, people were waving at us, wishing us a merry Christmas, and even wanted to take pictures with us. I guess being white, wearing a big white cap, and wearing matching reindeer antlers probably helped some. They probably all thought we were a couple considering Christmas is usually spent with a boyfriend or girlfriend; we saw couples everywhere, especially couples with matching attire.
After that, I had to go home a little early to meet up with a friend that had ordered a Christmas gift for me. I also thought another friend would come over so I bought a cake at a bakery near my house; it even came with a nice elfish hat. Unfortunately, my other friend didn't come so I had a lot of cake left over. Actually, that is what most Koreans do to celebrate Christmas - they buy a Christmasy looking cake. After finishing my gift wrapping, my magical Christmas Eve finally came to an end. It was time for Santa to arrive!
Today, I have started my "winter vacation," which includes Christmas Eve, Christmas, the day after Christmas, and the weekend. The teachers at my school get much for break time for Christmas than any other school. I know another school that was going to open on Christmas, but after many complaints, they decided to take Christmas off and make it up on Saturday. Hello, Christmas!!
Last Saturday, some friends from church and I went to Everland, which is an amusement park south of Seoul. This is the largest theme park in Korea, and they were having a big Christmas festival when we went. After an hour and half bus ride, we finally arrived and were super siked. As we walked through the park, we were filled with adrenaline after seeing all the decorations and the super exciting rides. We started out the day with a show called Santa Express, which had a vast array of dances from all over world. We were struck by the high number of white foreigners in the show; I heard Everland likes to hire foreigners as entertainers because of the good image. I loved it when the whole area was filled with fake snow during the show; I love snow, real or not.
After the show, we decided to hit up some rides. We went to ride the T-express, which has the steepest drop in the world. We were basically blown away. I couldn't feel my face or hands after we got off. We then headed to the nearby snow hill, where people can go sleigh riding for free. What better way to warm up than to have snow slushing all over your body?
We then went throughout the rest of the park and rode all that we could. We went to haunted houses, houses that go topsy turvey, rides that twisted and swung us all over the place. On one ride, one of our friends dropped her phone, camera, and t-money card (with about $100 on it). We saw the phone drop as we twisted upside down; luckily, it survived what should have been a tragic end to its life. We didn't discover the missing camera and t-money until later. So, we went back to the ride twice looking for those items after searching all over the park. Luckily, the t-money card was found, and the camera was still in great condition even though it no case at all. I thought it was funny that after one of the park employees gave us bad news, they would suddenly smile, wave with two hands, and say goodbye.
After riding as much as possible all day, we ended the day with a giant firework display tuned to Christmas music and a Christmas-light parade. Those things put us in an extreme holiday spirit.
I decided that my new goal in life is to be an employee at Everland. I have a few choices for employment. I could be one of the foreigners that entertain the Korean audiences. I could also be one of the ride attendants that sing and dance while they control your fate with the flip of a switch. I also wouldn't mind being one of the cleaners that wear polar bear hats and skate around the park with brooms; I don't care to clean up as long as I can skate all day. If all else fails, I could be one of the people that stand outside rides and shops and wave with both hands while saying "Merry Christmas" constantly.
After figuring out how to catch a bus back home, we finally got back at about 11, and I just basically passed out on the couch. It was a great way to spend the holidays!
In other news besides my hair (I hate talking about my hair...really, I do), the yellow dust season is in full swing now. That's when the sand from the deserts of China come blowing into Korea. In the past, it wasn't so bad, but deforestation has caused it to get worse every year. Like last year, I have so much mucus in the lungs (you're welcome). It's horrible. I actually went hiking a couple of weekends ago (pictured), and it happened to be the most hazardous days of the year. Our hiking leader is a determined one. This is one of the toughest parts about life here. If you live in Korea, I would recommend checking out the yellow dust monitor operated by the US Army in Seoul and don't go hiking like a crazy man on bad days.
