This blog is beginning an evolution. I figure it is only necessary as I have also been undergoing an evolution. I will start to focus more of my writing on the world around me. Until now I feel like it was important for me to just breathe and adjust to my settings. I finally feel like I have settled in to my life here in a way that feels comfortable and stably unsteady ;) -------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday the 23rd of May, the previous president of South Korea, No Muhyeon fell from a cliff while hiking. It is presumed to be suicide. He [View Full Entry]

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Today has been rock-solid. I taught an awesome lesson on stereotypes. The students were being silly and loud IN ENGLISH!!! and laughing. I am floating on cloud nine. I had feared this lesson would be a failure, but almost everyone was engaged and talking. We brainstormed stereotypes at the school and I heard some of the most random nicknames emerge along side the stereotypes. Example: tentacle. Haha. I love my students. It was great because we talked about the difference stereotypes that are placed on them by people outside of the school/in society and by the students themselves. I had the [View Full Entry]

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Today my 1-1 (First years, first class) was no good. I had to stop and make two students move seats. It took two minutes so I had them stay after two minutes. No one would participate. I know I am exagerating, but it felt like pulling teeth. Throughout the whole class people were just staring at me. When I told them about my weekend they were laughing and focused and engaged, but when I asked them about their weekends, I got one word answers. When I asked them about the questions for the article we read last week, blank stares. Maybe [View Full Entry]

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Well, I am sitting at home at 5:40pm with an unknown number of stitches in the back of my head instead of in Daegu with my fellow yogis or even on Ulleung-do or Dok-do. This is because of a series of unfortunate events actually, that I am still processing. Let's backtrack to Wednesday. The day before the Ulleung-do trip. I needed to get food for the trip, sea sickness medication, cash, and I needed to fix the flat tire on my bike from Tuesday night. I did all of it. As I was riding my bike back from yoga on Wed. [View Full Entry]

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I feel frustrated right now. Some students in my last class decided to spend the end of class mocking me. It is fine in most ways. It happened last year. I know that I had been a little curt with them because they were chatty, but on top of yesterday… I could really use a good scream. Yesterday I woke up and my apartment was filled with smoke. I am still no sure how it happened. I woke at 7am and threw all of the windows open. I came back to my house at 9:30am with my co-teacher and a gas [View Full Entry]

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It is Sunday, 6:30pm and I have no idea where the weekend went. It has been tons of fun, but I wish I could savor it a bit longer. I went to a musical today with Laura. We saw, 'JUMP.' It is a Korean martial arts musical. A comedy. It was good. I feel like I have a better understanding of Korean culture now. I don't watch TV, so I miss a lot of pop culture. I stumbled upon an organic cafe right near Gyeongsan Station. SWEEEET! I had seen it last week when a teacher gave me a ride to [View Full Entry]

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I was invited to renew my contract yesterday! I am so excited!!! It is not official yet because technically it was an application, buuuuuut I am sooo happy regardless. It will be so great to be here for another year. I recently read a blog and it kind of bummed me out. I know that it is not wholly true, but there was truth in it and that made me a little sad. The blog brought to light the racism that exists in South Korea. I knew about it. I have witnessed it and been a victim, but it hadn’t completely [View Full Entry]

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Here are some clips of partner yoga. This was from the first day of trying it out in the Body Design class. It has been a while. I have been working, traveling, biking, and doing yoga. I'm pretty tired right now. I spent the weekend in Seoul at a Zen Counseling seminar. It was really interesting. I had gone up skeptical and now I am glad that I went. I was the only foreigner taking the seminar, but it was taught by a German man and then translated into Korean. It was so interesting hearing the reverse of what I am [View Full Entry]

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Listening to: Let My Love Open the Door (Dan in Real Life soundtrack) Alive (Sa Ding Ding) One Blood (Junior Reid) Reading: The Help (Kathryn Stockett) When I went to lunch yesterday, it was a bright sunny day, at 2pm it was cloudy, incredibly windy, and raining. Luckily, by the time I finished work the clouds had parted, but it was still chilly. I biked to yoga via a new path. It was no fun. There were so many stop lights and I ended up biking on bark for a few minutes, which is really difficult… Then I hit a dead-end [View Full Entry]

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It turns out that spring = construction in SoKo. Everywhere they are ripping up sidewalk and ripping up plants to make room for seasonal blooms. Well, let me clarify, cities with money are doing these things. My coteacher was explaining to me that the cities have money that must be used up (like back in the States) so that they can get money again next year. They will rip up perfectly good sidewalk and lay down a new pattern, just because they can. I am always suprised when I see the amount of effort put into landscaping here. Every season people [View Full Entry]

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