90 Days, Same As Cash

Ah, the three-month mark as come and gone. Feels like I blinked and it's almost mid-February.

Time is flying by and I'm trying to pack in everything I could possibly want to do. I know the next nine months are going to fly by, so trying to take every opportunity and enjoy each day. I've done some hiking, sat in the cold in the middle of the night waiting for a meteor shower, went snowboarding (for the first time), have slept in public saunas/bath houses, and have eaten some questionable foods. And I've savored every minute of it.

I was looking through the Memo section in my cell phone ('hand pone' in Konglish) and found a slew of notes from my trip to Busan. Here are some of the highlights:

hike today- 8 hours, took all the longways
many temples
some hiking buddies
weather was perfect- blue skies, high 40s, cold on top was refreshing
ate at a mountain restaurant- tofu and red bean rice bread
healthy day
body feels great


Vesta Sauna & Spa-
view of city, water
families all around
kids running
parents sipping on beer
fun relaxing night
tea and Korean fashion magazines
sunrise on the beach!

As I look back on the past three months, I'm a bit ashamed that my Korean is still pretty much nil. That is high on my To Do List now. I was able to memorize the basic numbers (1-10, 100, 1,000) for money/purchasing reasons. Next category to tackle is conversational Korean. Day by day. I'm using a combo of resources; Rosetta Stone and my Korean co-teachers. Rosetta Stone packs come with audio discs. I put some of them on my iPod, so as I'm walking to work rocking out out to Mary Chapin Carpenter or T-Pain, I get a nice mini-lesson in Korean as an interlude.

I've fallen in love with the food and can honestly say there isn't much food I'm desperately missing from home. Yes, there are things that sound absolutely delicious, but there are decent enough substitutes here that I'll survive for the year. My favorite foods so far are kimchi, tteokbokki, red bean paste, gogi mandu, tteokgochi, tteok galbi (ok, anything with tteok!), honey pancakes, and the newest addition- black bean soy milk (who knew!)

I'm starting to act the role of a teacher every day. I've never been particularly fond of random kids, but my young ones seem like mini-adults, so they're good in my book. There's always some "issue" at every hagwan, but all-in-all the staff and students at mine are a stand-up group. I count my blessings on that one!

If January is any indication, 2010 is going to be great... cheers from the future ^^

P.S. It's doppelganger week on Facebook, here's mine: