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Published: November 7th 2009
After another long delay we are back with new tales. Although the “honeymoon” phase of travel may be coming to an end, we are now enjoying the comforts of establishing a routine in a land that seemed as far from home as possible only a few months ago. When we are not working hard for the money taming the youngsters, we now spend our days playing Frisbee on Sundays with a local league, becoming regulars at our favorite local restaurants and making a circle of friends from here all the way to the southern hemisphere.
These days we have been enjoying the simple pleasures of an ex-pat lifestyle. We play Frisbee in a park with views of a beautiful mountain. It has been a great way to make friends. Although we are on different teams we still manage to root for each other… mot of the time. We’ve also been taking baby steps towards Korean fluency (or perhaps Korean literacy) as we now know how to give directions to cab drivers.
My favorite simple pleasures here are the steadfast cheerleaders I encounter on my jogging routes toward the stadium. I am, without fail, given high fives and thumbs ups by
Photo 19
Temple staya number of old women and men as I pant my way up hills. I must admit, it does make me feel like a champ. Also, rediscovering listening to This American Life while in a far away country, always amazing. The familiarity of Ira’s voice is like a home cooked meal after weeks of pasta and ramen noodles. However, the greatest recent satisfaction has been making our one room apartment, with, lets be honest, a ridiculous shower and ancient cooking facilities, feel like a home.
Any who, those highlights in a nut shell aside, life in general progresses. I did a temple stay with friends from Busan. We ventured up into a mountain to learn Sunmudo (a Korean martial arts), have tea with the monks and wake up before dawn to greet the day with Buddhist introspection. Sometime soon Kagan and I will return there and work on our inner Dharma together. We cracked the barrier of work life by hosting a potluck. With our Korean co-workers and fellow foreigners crammed on our floor it ended up being a hit thanks to Catch Phrase. We gained a new respect for our Korean co-teachers’ amazing ability to narrate English, their
true calling after all that teacher training.
Last weekend was Halloween. As many of you know, this is my favorite holiday. While home was greatly missed (I’ll be home for you next year apple festival) some familiar traditions were carried on at school. Although Korea does not on the whole celebrate this glorious holiday, our English hogwons came through with full support. Kagan and I led mummy races, pin-the-nose-on-the-pumpkin and I even got to take my kinders Trick-or-Treating. My mime face paint seemed to be more of a scare to the little ones than a hit but it was hilarious bringing some of those personal traditions to their lives. There is never a better day to let your inner kid run free then when in costume. Plus, come on, the pictures are awesome. We finally had the best excuse for a full on photo shoot with our students.
Well, as this is all for now folks, I hope you enjoy the updates and pictures. We love to hear from you whenever you have the chance. The snail mail continues to be Vonderful! Thank you!
With love from Asia,
Lauren and Kagan
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Karen
non-member comment
Boy, those kids look like they really like Halloween and spending money on their costumes. You guys will never forget these experiences together.