WONDERland

Wow, how time flies. My last blog was 3 months ago, and man so much has happened since then. I’ve been accustomed to Korea’s speedy lifestyle as well as the people and environment. The current temperature is a freakish -23 degrees Celsius, which is a freaking -9.4 degrees Fahrenheit. Wut. My face feels like its falling apart every time I walk outside. Its snowed almost 15 inches in the last week; Nothing in my current lifespan had prepared me for this. I didn’t have a ready jacket and holy hell is snow annoying - especially after a couple of days of hardening. On the upside, Korean Winter ain’t all that bad minus the weather haha. I’m halfway through my final Winter English Camp and its going smoothly. Its a new year (I’m going to have trouble remembering 2013 for at least 6 months) and the first Friday of the year, almost the end of the first week. I’ve had some resolutions this time around, like always, but I’ll keep them private :).

On the contrary, I’m feeling a bit astounded by my quick attachment to Korea… Maybe after college I’ll come back hahaha… but then teach at a cram school in Seoul. We’ll see. I do miss the states tremendously. No matter what, I think I’ll have trouble living anywhere that English isn’t the main language and doesn’t fit my size, however, Korea is nearing a second home. Quaint, but cozy, the country sure has grown on me, compared to my previous experiences altogether. I miss speaking English freely, on the other hand, my Korean has exceeded my expectations and I can comfortably say I am 98% fluent hahaha. Just a bit more then I can say 100%.. But that requires time, which I have to an extent, and effort, which I lack incredibly. No matter, I want to be a minimal pentalingual and that will take an extreme amount of effort… We’ll see, we’ll see. Luckily, this year hasn’t been ALL in waste. I’ve lost some weight that would have taken FOREVER in the states knowing my lifestyle, I’ve gotten a *bit* more active and with all these Self-Help Retreats from the principal, I am a bit more goal oriented. I’ll just need to watch my mouth hahaa.

Alrighty, I’ve ordered an iPhone 5 as a christmas present to myself, but my mother insisted she buy it for me (bless her!), so hopefully I’ll be getting that within the next week or two. Also, holy hell, I waited a fucking 9 months for this, but MONSTER ENERGY DRINKS ARE FUCKIN FINALLY IN KOREAAAAAAAAA! And yeah, I ordered 15, because unfortunately, they are online only for now. Definitely will be takin a pic and posting it when I get it, but oh man, am I excited to the zeniths of heaven hahaha. Also, stupid PC game downloads keep going on sale, making my should-be-fat wallet into a skinny pig. Now, to get that gaming PC I’ve been dreaming about… On the topic of more items I should, definitely looking at some high end headphones, I bought the Klipcsh X10’s but I fear that the S4’s might actually outperform them so… And the Sony MDR-V700’s are getting a bit stale on my ears. I’m eyeing those Grado SR-80i cans but that is something that can wait until I get back. Finally, a laptop exchange is in the mists, definitely eyeing the 13.3 inch Macbook Air, but that Retina Pro is exceedingly tantalizing…. We shall see where my wallet will go. Still need a car when I get back hahaha.

OkidyDokidy, enough ramblin’ for a post, I shall maybe see you guys soon. Definitely stopping by Angkor Wat in Cambodia in the end of January and then Tokyo in the beginning of February before heading back to the States. We shall see where else I will go. Hopefully travel around the country that I’ve been living in for almost a year…. hahahha. okbye.  

Yeah yeah, its been a while. I’ve been… lazy. Since the last update, I’ve had summer fly by and leave behind autumn. Bummer. Well, I stopped by the states and had a blast, but now back to my somewhat ethereal reality. I am sitting in some asian coffee shop (Angel-in-us-Coffee? wtf) waiting for my bus to Songni Mountain for another night with me gramps. Another day without a touch of society, but hey, its my duty and its fun. But still, if I could just, I dunno, sit and rest for more than a couple hours, that would be great! Having spent the last 3 days at my grannys in Daejeon is always a bore, but hey at least its fam. 

Chuseok came and gone, leaving me with two days extra but as I’ve said, I spend them at Songni Mountain so bah, with a return to work on the Wednesday. I promised some pics and I apologize for my lack of… initiative but I will get on that soon. Now, I have about 4 minutes before my bus leaves, so I will hurry on with this. It is October the first here, with only about 4 - 5 months left of my contract and I am starting to get a bit antsy. Its been fun and all but I think its time I get back to doing something. I dunno, anything, like I always say. I’ll be back in the States in no time and I don’t want the last couple of months to have been a waste. I’ll prob do some dieting again (fuck) and bah I dunno we’ll see. WE’LL SEE. 

Laddeelalaa awesome possum shickleshackle I’m finishing the Hunger Games trilogy while listening to some K-pop dance tune that my students will be dancing to. (It’s real catchy alright?) Also, I’m about 1/10 of the way through the final book in the Millennium trilogy as well, so hopefully get those done within the end of the month so I can start the Hobbits. Can’t wait for the release of Looper next week and trying to puzzle my way through the new Layton while still finding time to waste with an occasional drink + Dota (Sorry apak, csgo is too hard while tipsed). All in all, I’m meshing well and will hopefully have more fun things to update on. Stay tuned, I’ll be going up Duguew? Mountain on Friday, which is supposed to be some 7 hourass hike and then a half marathon in November (fuckmeright?) so yup. Alright, blast off. something, 

Procrastination. Super super super procrastination. Its honestly almost been three weeks now and I don’t even remember what happened exactly. Oh my gard. 

Well, a lot DID happen within the time frame, so I guess I’ll just cut to the chase. The weekend of Week 8 started out rather rad, with me having an *almost* empty weekend with only a small class on Saturday. The school was having some festival due to the 20th anniversary of the retreat center, so I was pretty much scot-free and able to do whatever I want. My two roomies (I promise I’ll put up a pic soon!) had a date-ish planned in Seoul with another friend and his two girl-friends on that Saturday. One of the staff had lent me their car, so I was planning a late entry to school when I was suddenly woken up by some disgruntled voices. It seemed something had erupted at the school that required immediate attention from my two roomies and man were they upset. I wouldn’t find out later, but oh man would this event provide an ominous loom over the rest of the week…. 

Lets step back a bit and go to that Friday. One of my roomies bought a new car recently and I guess in Korea its culture for that person to buy dinner to their friends? I dunno, but I was able to eat steak cause of this. And oh man was it good, but freaking pricey and not worth it hahaha. I dunno if I’ll ever do this alone here hahaha. Also, I was able to use this time to convince the roomies to go see a movie… THE MUTHAFUCKIN ABENJASUUUUU! And oh man…. I freaking wish I was in America to see it with the guys! ahahah I also convinced the others to stay all the way to the end of the credits for a “secret second” scene that ended badly… as it was only in America… I’m definitely going to find time to see it again. 

Now on to that week… Yeah it was pretty awful. The whole atmosphere was freaking wicked bad and extremely distraught. None of the staff seemed to know what to say and no one knew what would happen. The big thing that happened was…. 

Rape. Gay Rape. 

Okay, that was a bit strong, but I wouldn’t be able to explain it in any way. So one of the senior guys had been making the rounds of the younger guys for about a year and…. forcing fellatios on them while they slept. While the guys all released a sigh of relief when we found out it wasn’t penetration, but the younger kids had been deeply scarred and actually scared to do anything against the senior. The senior showed little sign of remorse but accepted that it was a wrong thing to do. The Principal, being the lead speaker at the retreat center, stepped forward to help the development of the senior and took him out of the school while the victims had a fulfilling talk with the male instructors over their feelings and the reasons why they couldn’t retaliate. Luckily, this settled better than it started and we have moved onto a new week. 

Now, for Memorial Day Weekend, I was expecting a normal weekend when i found out that the Monday was a holiday for Korea too! Something about the day Buddha came or whatever, but WAHOOO WASABI I had a three day weekend. Using my newfound time, I made a trip to Seoul and met up with two friends and my cousin and his soon to be wife. Spent the day and night extremely well. 

Yeah, its almost the end of the week again and luckily nothing new happened haha. I’m starting to play a lot more basketball and trying to lose more weight hahaha. I have a wedding in what, 2 and a half weeks and then its already the end of June, with July and August almost here. FREAK! I ammu excited. I’ll try to do an update this week. Let’s play Diablo guys!