ten things I miss

I have been here a little while now and I am past the shock of being here again. I have a few things in perspective and can say this much

Ten things I miss (besides the obvious; Shahen, my Mom, Oscar, family, friends)

1. Brunch at the local Pickell Barrell with Shahen getting served by the drama queen waitress who swung around her boobs at every chance

2. Driving with Oscar in the car

3. watching my husband do housework like he was the Tazmanian devil ;)

4. My paintings (the ones I purchased, not the ones I did)

5. Call display

6. GOOD TV! Dexter, Law and Order etc

7. The variety at the grocery stores- in fact grocery shopping and getting almost a car full rather than 2 bags full (western stuff is super expensive here)

8. knowing where I am and how to get to where I want to be

9. China town (Odd when you think I am next door to China now)

10. The water (God knows what is in the water here and what is being deposited in my body)



Ten things I do not miss!

1. Rush Hour on the TTC

2. What awaited me at the other end of tht rush hour (the morning one I mean)

3. working 45 hours a week and commuting 10

4. credit (there is something to be said for paying cash for everything)

5. Asshole drivers making my husband angry (oddly most were Korean drivers in our hood!)

6. The cold

7. Annoying students! (I do miss some of the good ones though)

8. Market research phone calls at dinner time- any time actually but especially dinner time

9. Commercials- I mean they have then here just not as many and I dont understand them anyway

10. Oscar pooping at the door! (MISS YOU OSCARCHO)


Ten things that I already don't like here

1. Everybody's kimchee breath (if you can't beat them, join them- ummm no thanks)

2. Having to talk like Tarzan in each class- but they are sweet students

3. Annoying announcements on the bus

4. The VOLUME OF EVERYTHING- IT GOES TO 11

6. Everyone checking you out head to tow

7. 13 dollars for a watermelon

8. funky smells

9. no toilet paper in the washrooms

10. Having to repeat everything 5 times

Oct 19th

This week has felt like a month. Perhaps because I wasnt running around like a headless chicken.

Tomorrow Kim and all her friends (including moi) are going to a "resort" near the sea. We are taking a bus to Yeosu and then getting picked up and driven out of town to this place. It is apparently western style, so we shall see.

I just made a killer spaghetti sauce, and had it for lunch. For dinner, I am going to my old hood to Chosun University and will be meeting Chisun and her husband for dinner. They are such a lovely couple. I can't wait to see them. They used to live across the street from my place. I will go visit my old hood.

I have been given some extra classes which is nice. I am going to teach 15 hours next week, then I will have five 50 minute classes from 8:30 am to 9:20 and 6:00 pm to 6:50. This means I am going to be working over 8 extra hours a week. And according to my contract I am to work 18 hours a week, so that means 5.2 hours of overtime.

Institutions such as these pay very well for overtime work, and so it is possible to live off the overtime pay and bank the remainder. We shall see. I do not intend to live like a hermit here, but I am going to try to save.

My sister mentioned something about investing, and playing the stock market, so I think it would be good to put a little (no more than one can afford to lose) and see what happens. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, and I would like to have my tuition for teachers college in the bank by the time I leave here.

Well, I have laundry to do and I need to get detergent and sugar (not for my laundry, but for the real coffee I finally bought yesterday) so I should be off. I also have to erase the Eurocenters photos off my camera so I can have space to take more pics this weekend. That should be cleansing ;)

I will get the firewire to download pics next week and put some on here of my apartment as well as the trip.

Have a good weekend y'all.
Over and out

Here I am again

Well I swore up and down that I would neve return. I said goodbye to this country in 2005, never looking back- yet here I am again, same city no less. Am I a sucker for punishment?

Possibly


Likely


But there is a method to this Armenian madness as I sit here in my massive and empty apartment, at 5:50 am, blogging, which has been a lost art to me these past 15 months.

I can say that i burned out in Canada. My dream job that was so flexible and inviting, soon engulfed my life to the point that I did not have the energy to speak to my husband, the driving force behind my move to Canada, about our life, my day, his feelings, or anything that was worthy of conversation. In a few short months we became like an old couple that has nothing left to say to each other. It broke my heart to see us this way and I resented my life, our beautiful apartmetn and most of all my "steady" job.

Maybe I wasnt strong enough to do what was necessary. Maybe I was/am too emotional for the postion of Director. I brought my work home with me and soon it took its physical- not to mention emotional toll. And worse of all, it took its toll on us.

So insane as I may be, here I am, in Gwangju again, working for a reputable university. My apartment is big, on campus, free and virtually bill-less, and I am across from the very building in which I teach. It is exam week and I am not teaching as of yet, but come Monday I will be working full-force. 25 hours a week!! Half of what I was doing in Canada.

I have come here with a plan this time. 1. to find a publisher for my book, but not before putting the final touches on it, 2 to apply and hopefully get accepted to an online Masters programme for January or next fall, and 3 to work on myself. It is amazing what one can do to ones body when wallowing in misery, and in return, what that body does back to you. I read a quote a few weeks ago "Take care of your body, as it is the only home you have to live in" or words to that effect. I dont remember the author, but they are wise words. I intend to do just that, and go back to my love the person he met two years ago. I do not feel like that person now, and it is a sad thing to admit.

Perhaps writing down my plan and sharing it will force me to do it, or perhaps plans will change as new opportunities arrise. I know this for sure; I have time to do things I havent really done since Bulgaria, and I like having the time to sort the thoughts in my head. Without it, I cannot relax.

So we shall see what my second run is like here. It wont be the same. I know what I am in for, and I have old friends here now, ost of whom are calling and asking me to meet though i am still to jet-lagged. I also feel far more seasoned. I know what I am here for, and I am determined to get it. If I do not see progress, I will go home. There is not reason to be away from my husband and family if there is no progress.