SUNDAY a day of doing good things...

So today was lesson plan day... And much more. It was my first day alone. It was weird being alone from the moment I awoke till now... I know I'm not alone, heck I just walk out of my house and people are there to greet left and right... But, I mean no structured visiting or working. It was nice and peaceful, but I must confess I kept having to check in with myself that it was okay to just be at home and that I didn't have to be anywhere until tomorrow at 8:40am.

I had the chance to do laundry, read, work on lesson plans, go for a run, get some groceries, explored my neighborhood a bit, and watch an awesome Korean film: Little Brother... It is about two brothers. The older brother developes a brain tumor and you see the younger brother dealing with the realization of his older brother's mortality. It was so good and I definately cried. The tragedy of cancer is so pervasive. : (

SOOOoo, tomorrow I have my first Taekwando class. Landon is bringing me to a class he attends. He goes Mon-Fri from 6pm-8:30pm by the time we bike to the studio and back. It is about a half hour ride there and back. I'm going to try and go Mon-Wed and then Fri. I have to teach 2 afternoon/evening classes on Thru nights, so that is out. I'm also supposed to teach 2 days after school for my HS, but three nights of teaching, plus my 9-5 mon-fri is not going to happen, so I have to tell my co-teachers tomorrow. I was "chosen" to go and teach thur from 3-7 by the Gyeongsan Office of Education. I will be teaching teachers at 2 different middle schools. Thank goodness I have a bike to use. So I will get exercise on Thurs on the bike...

This coming weekend is a long weekend and a few of us EPIK people are getting together. It is Korean Thanksgiving, which is actually a lot of work for Koreans. They travel all over the country to pay respects to their ancestors. I told one of my co-teachers, after he compared it to American Thanksgiving, that I was sad. I told him, American Thanksgiving is not a day I am proud of. It is not about honor ancestors for me. It is about celebrating a lie, a false friendship that lead to the deaths and continues to lead to the deaths of a huge amount of indigenous persons. He smiled at me. He knew the history. I was glad that we were on the same page. We were sitting with two other Seong Sang Nims eating special rice cakes "tak," which are a tradition food for their Thanksgiving. He told them what I said and they nodded at me. It is nice to be permitted to share my ideas this openly.

Also, I hadn't realized how poorly I was eating prior to coming here. Those cheese danishes from work and goodbye cakes/cupcakes/cookies/bundts... Thank you all for them, they were freakn bomb, hence why I ate them... All of them! ; ) are no longer a part of my diet and my body feels different without them... Lighter... All the food here is different and it is odd feeling my body figure out how to process them. By the way, there is a nutritionist at GSHS and she plans meals for the cafeteria and for me, as a veggie as well, the food is the best cafeteria food I have ever had. It is fresh made daily and with such good ingredients... It freaks me out sometimes to think about it. So different than the pizza, pretzels, fro yo, etc that were available at my HS... Anyway, I feel taken care of. There is a restaurant on my street that serves "gimbap/kimbap," which in essence are sushi rolls... Like 10 piece sushi rolls. Anyway, the lady knows me now and she makes me a veggie to go and it is sooo bomb. It only cost $1!!!!!!!!!!! I'm in love with it. To say "I am a vegetarian," you say, "Nahnun, cheh sheek jew-ee-jaw imnida." This is one of the hardest phrases I've tried to learn thus far.

So. I've gotten into the habit of having a power bar for breakfast b/c it has a ton of nutrients and now I am running low and they def don't have power bars here, Zoe, thank you so much for sending me with them! They have def saved me more than a few times : ) So I think I'm gonna be weaning myself off of them... Boo.

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