Post 100

I felt like it was about to blog something. I've been feeling a bit funny lately. I guess I should say strange. Anyways, I happen to have posted 99 times before so that means that this is post 100. Blogspot counts it. I certainly wouldn't count them otherwise.

So anyways, I haven't done all that much recently. Well I suppose I've done quite a bit but it boils down to almost nothing. I went to a river and had an I don't quite know how to describe it time. We went for a barbeque by this little river below a damn. We had samgyeopsal. Then, we went to a buddhist temple. I got a bit drunk, well more than a bit, quite by accident. Well, I went to the bathroom and when I left these ajeossis invited me to have some soju which I accepted. Then, after a while they had given me a whole bottle. It was quite a long time ago though but I did some cartwheels and tried to climb trees and a bunch of other stupid things. I kind of felt like an idiot afterwards but kind of had fun at the time. Mostly. The next weekend was really bad.

The weekend after that or possibly the one after that I went rafting with Alex and Young Mi. I'd never gone rafting before. I was fun. I don't have any pictures and I guess the people who took pictures for the company have yet to release them to the public so you'll just have to believe that I did it.

Well, I don't think I did anything all that interesting aside from those things. My one day off a week has become quite bothersome. I really can't do anything with it and when I do it doesn't make for an energetic next week. So I've been having some issues at work. Just me basically telling them that I'm not supposed to work according to my contract and them telling me that all they can do for me is give me 2-3 extra vacation days a year which really means nothing since they decide when I can take those days. I make a request rather and they can't choose to grant it or not so really they could give me 100 vacation days and it would amount to the same thing I'm sure. Finally, I told them I would not work another Saturday until I got something else for it. Yesterday, I was told that I would be paid for Saturdays and was supposed to get the details today but didn't since the vice-director comes to work after I do and once I start I only get 5 minute breaks. Then once I'm finished she continues to teach and not wanting to stick around the school indefinitely I left. I guess we'll see what kind of deal they give me. I really didn't mean to start talking about that..... Or did I?

I'm beginning to wonder what I'm doing here. Being here right now is fine but a change is in the works. A good friend of mine, possibly my only true one here, is leaving in 2 months and some other friends may or may not be coming to Daegu. It will be interesting to see what happens come mid-November.

For some reason, I thought this year would be a lot of different and it's been better but not quite what I expected. One of the reasons, I chose the school I did was because there would be a handful of foreign teachers all living in the same building. When I came here, there were 3 other teachers. One was kind of a loner and I didn't know him at all since he taught at a different school, well different location. The other had his own group of friends which was fine and the other was leaving in 2 weeks anyway. I had Alex from the year before. Then 2 new teachers came. Both knew each other coming over and I did a few things with them. Not all that much though since Korea was still so new to them and the whole idea of being a guide doesn't appeal to me. It was kind of like in Denmark. I was there for the whole year and once the fall semester people had gone, I only hung out with other full-years. It had nothing to do with them (though they did seem annoying) but they were at a different place. For me Denmark was home, and for them it was this wild, crazy, new place. Talking about what makes Korea different doesn't interest me as a topic of conversation whereas that's the topic du jour for them. So I hung out with Alex and they hung out with each other. Since then 2 new teachers have arrived and now Scott and Adam get to play guide. Anyways, the 4 of them do quite a bit together I believe. So, I feel a bit excluded without necessarily wanting to be included. Anyways, that's a bit strange.

I just know that once Alex leaves, my life will be completely different. Same job and whatever but I will have to adjust and I'm not sure it's something I want to do. When I was having trouble at work, I began contemplating, wondering what I was doing here. I mean my job isn't too bad. I make decent money but the idea of another 8 months didn't appeal to me very much. Part of it is for silly reasons. I've spent 2 birthdays in Daegu and will be dangerously close to a third once my contract ends. I think 3-4 days or something. I'd really rather be far gone by the time my birthday comes. Age is really just arbitrary, I mean it doesn't actually mean anything but I don't want to be in Korea when I become a year older.

I'll just have to see how I feel around December. Whether I want to finish my contract and all. There have been Korean classes though that I'm thinking of taking, and have already paid for. After 200 hours of Korean instruction I should at least be proficient in Korean but I don't know if it's worth it if I don't stay much past the end of the classes. I've also been sick and have had little energy the past week so I can't even imagine taking the classes when just going to work seems tiring.

The nice thing has been that I've been having really nice dreams. I went to Copenhagen last night and I think I seem to go there quite a lot in my dreams. I think at least half of the dreams I remember since I left Denmark have had something to do with Denmark. I guess I haven't been many places since then, well lived in many places since then. Corpus Christi, which I hated, and Daegu. Edmonton hardly counts. I wonder why I never have dreams about Edmonton. I'm always in some locationless dream or in Denmark. My dreams haven't even really centred around Korea. I just realized that. Anyways, I seem to be lost in thought now so I'll have to continue this later in post 101.