Where to start.... Stars? No, too cliche. No one wants to hear about how you rediscovered the immense empyrean that exists right above the hazy fog of Korean nights skies, and how somehow it opening up above you opens up the crevasses inside to reveal all kinds of vibrant emotions that were seized in the heart, like air embedded in rock. Too obvious. Start smaller... White sand? Come on now, really? Toes tickling soft silt while the sun sets and the beer in your hand drips droplets of dew down your fingers and onto your bare legs? Really? Isn't that the [View Full Entry]

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So eventually I had to teach my kids the happiest song in the world (also, my favorite), and in doing so it was only natural to also make them dance around like little Earth, Wind and Fire prodigies. Eat your heart out MJ. [View Full Entry]

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OK, so once upon a time I was a drama queen. I know, this is a difficult thing to admit, and if there's any place a girl should be able to let it all out, it’s her blog. It's taken me a long time to get here, to the place where I can admit my problem....I mean, my problem of days of yore.....but here I am, naked to the world; recovering drama queen. God, I feel so much better....... So now that that's out of the way, I will now attempt the least sentimental approach possible for a sentimentalist like me [View Full Entry]

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Sky Car wheels roll, wheels crunch, wheels squeak, Over rocks, on dark black ice, spread Haphazardly on open, swelling highway, Heaving hills, and open, gaping Sky. Space. Lights of the city lie flat, Spread wide, and I open, open Up, and out and up the stars Dance subtly against a stark, black Canvas. I smirk, as a smile won’t do, not With the derision, the hindsight I have Not seeing from above, or below (as For so long all I’ve done is look up, Or down). But now, I am looking [View Full Entry]

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In a loop, or a figure 8, it is difficult to know where the line begins. In fact, it's downright impossible, unless you get REALLY close to the paper and see where the smudge on the line exists, where the 'blob' of ink is just a little bit thicker. And maybe, in the end, it is irrelevant where the line begins...just knowing that once upon a time it began, and now it is a full circle, is enough to know and move on. Of course, most people don't spend that much time looking closely at a circular mark on a page, [View Full Entry]

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Through the Looking Glass.... My parents will arrive on Korean soil in T minus ten days. A few months ago I was completely unable to wrap my head around this idea...my parents, in THIS context, as part of THIS life. Last year it wouldn't have even been a possibility. And a few years before that I was going to finish my second degree in Calgary and get a job in Alberta...skiing in the winter and imagining hot, exotic places somewhere in Neverneverland, existing silently in a steamy breeze on the ouskirts of reality. And a few years before that, I don't [View Full Entry]

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My second contract has begun. The first day of classes of the new semester, it rained. Like I have become accustomed to in this country, seasons begin in one day. The earth literally just wakes up one morning and decides its time for a change. The humidity rolled in Friday morning, along with some yellow dust and the smell of moist, fertile earth (quite possibly my favorite smell in the world). Winter is over, Jennifer is done her contract, and I am on my own. I have my own glorious apartment to myself, and although it is an incredibly difficult thing [View Full Entry]

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I will lose 20 pounds this year. I will stop drinking so much and spend more time at the gym. I will call my mother more. I will never smoke again. I will eat healthier............................ Blah blah blah blah blah OK, fair enough, it would be lovely to actually succeed with goals like that. But resolutions shouldn't be so cut and dry. I have now, almost offically, spent a year away from home. I have grown, and changed. I have met fabulous people and ravelled to some of the most fascinating parts of the world...the most beautiful beaches, the most serene [View Full Entry]

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Just walked in the door. Slumped in the door is more like it. I always get that feeling of disassociation when I return home from a trip. But coming home to Korea has that extra oomph of oddity. I feel like I am sitting in a stranger's room. Maybe I am a stranger to the person that was here before December 22nd.....at least, I hope that is partially true. The past few months in Korea warped me more than I thought. And I am grateful a little sand and sun and fun puts things back into perspective. I was a little [View Full Entry]

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It doesn't need to be said but, in typical Shawna fashion, I will say it nonetheless......Christmas is tough when you are abroad. In all honesty, I am handling it much better then I ever would have thought possible, considering my roommate and best friend is going home, to Calgary, to do everything I would sell my SOUL to do right about now (ie. Banff, hockey, dinner with MY family).....however, I am going to Thailand. And let's be honest.....it's Thailand. What am I complaining about. But the holidays really sneak up on you...I mean REALLY sneak up on you. Fair enough, they [View Full Entry]

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