April 15-23: Spring is coming…EVentually

So now we’re going back and forth between teaching classes and street edutaining on the weekends. I’m still doing the Wanda routine, and while it’s fun and the kids are adorable, it is exhausting work. There’s very little singing I can do now, as they’re not coming in groups and I’m supposed to work on my own, so now it’s pretty much going through the most basic of beginning conversations with EVERY SINGLE KID. Wanda is pooped.

I’m teaching two different classes each day, one in our Toy Workshop, which is making a stuffed animal, and in the Funworld Museum, which is a nightmarish place of WAY too much stuff and WAY too many little activities that all get in the way of actual teaching. Not my favorite place. It might be a little better if we can get a smaller range of ages coming through at any given time, but the way the thing is designed, it just invites chaos. Grrr.

Saturday night, right after work, we crossed the street to Heyri and went to a traditional music and dance performance that was utterly gorgeous. Before we entered the theatre, we could watch (and participate in) a shamanic ceremony. I haven’t gotten the details on that particular set of rituals, but am beginning to learn about shamanism, which is pretty gosh darned interesting.

The performance, in a brand-new black-box theatre that had us all drooling with envy, was in 2 parts: a musical portion and a theatrical piece. The musicians were 3 percussionists, a keyboard player, and two traditional stringed instruments (gotta get the names of them…one was a single-stringed, lap-held deal that she played with a bow—very plaintive-sounding—and the other was a large, horizontal harp-type thing). Very cool, very exciting. The dance piece involved 3 of the instrumentalists playing on the floor to accompany 2 dancers in what I can best describe as a cross between comedia d’el arte and kabuki (no puppets). Very stylized and specific, bawdy, sweet, and moving.

After the performances, several of us were brought up to dance, which went on for a while, and then a fabulous buffet dinner followed. Apparently the whole night was to celebrate the new theatre, to welcome the artists among the EV staff, and to invite donors of Heyri to a night of art. We were really fortunate to be included, and I’m excited about all the interesting people that are a part of that community.

On our walk home, we realized that it was still pretty early, so we went to the pub until it wasn’t early at all…or, perhaps early again would be more appropriate… Our pub brews its own beer, which is pretty darn cool. The beer is so-so, but it’s better than Korean beer, and they’re working on it. It’s nice to have a pub here for a quick (or not so quick) beer out, when you don’t have the next day off. Mmmmm. Beeeeeeeer.

On Sunday, I actually got out in the morning for a quick bike ride, and just about got blown the heck off the thing. It can get pretty breezy up here! Wanda desperately needs some elastic to keep her hat on. Post-workday, I ran out of steam for the first improv group meeting, but rallied for a “Hail, Spring! Hail, Fertility!” party which was good fun and involved filthy-minded party games. At which, of course, I excel.

Monday was a day off, so I slept, puttered, did stupid stuff, worked out, and spent a good chunk of time preparing an appetizer for our cooking group, which had its first meeting that night. I decided that, rather than make a special trip to EMart for ingredients, I would concoct something out of whatever I had at home (which isn’t much here—I miss the stocked pantry and accessibility of supermarkets!). I ended up cooking up some very thin buckwheat noodles in a broth, then sautéing tofu in the leftover broth with sesame oil and garlic, and wrapping both up in some dark, mildly bitter greens. It got really labor intensive when I decided to tie each roll with noodles…but they looked really good and were pretty tasty. There are three people in the group who have actually been to cooking school, so we should be eating pretty well. I certainly won’t be the shining star of the group, but I’ll be a fine example of my school of “ghetto cooking,” as one guy called it.

Tuesday was off, too, so I went to Seoul with Elana and Matt (another edutainer) to hopefully see some cherry blossoms—which are much celebrated here. We had a huge lunch near our first stop and tried kimchi stew, which is a “bachelor’s food,” made with kimchi and whatever is on hand (my kind of cooking!), and then went to Changdeokgung (a palace with a big garden; the suffix ‘gung’ means ‘palace’), where we accidentally met up with co-workers. The six of us continued on to Yeoido park, noted for it’s cherry blossoms. Alas, we had just missed the end of the peak, and didn’t get to see them in all their glory. It was also a miserable day out, but at least we didn’t get the torrential downpours that had been pummeling EV all day.

We had a few comical moments, too. We’re used to being accosted within and outside of the village by kidlets cackling as they use their two phrases of English, but when a group of uniformed kids were all over us at the train station, it was really overbearing. And then we realized why: they were all mentally handicapped. So of course we got the giggles that are only intensified because they’re inappropriate... Later we saw three teenage guys on the street, and one of them dropped his ice cream and was bummed about it. His friend was laughing at him, and he screamed out, in a horrendous accent: “Shut the fuck up, man!” which also got us howling.

When we got home, we went to a party to officially, if casually, welcome our newest staff: commercial workers (in the stores, restaurants, other sites) and a few performers from mostly Russia and Romania. It was good to be able to talk with them, as we often only see them in passing while we’re working. They’re an interesting bunch, for sure.

Wednesday was a day off but I ended up working for half of it, just trying to get caught up. We’d had an incredible night of thunderstorms and wind the night before (lots of simultaneous thunder and lightning, complete with power outage), and the yucky weather continued. I spent a good part of the day reading “Comfort Woman,” which is the first pick of my reading group that meets next Monday. We FINALLY, after much ado and hassle, had our first soccer games on Wednesday night, in spite of the weather—the wind blew away anything not nailed down. During warmup, a guy I wasn’t kicking with or looking at who was three feet away from me kicked the ball with all of his strength smack into my inner thigh (VERY strong and fast but not all that skilled…), so I have a nice soccer-ball-shaped bruise to show off. As for the game…I played defense, and let’s just say that I owe my goalie a beer. Many beers.

Thursday was back to work, but few kids for our program, so I got lots of peripheral work done. Watched a screening of “Proposition,” an Aussie movie with Guy Pearce and Emily Watson—good stuff.

Friday…swam in the morning and witnessed an aqua aerobics class, which was extremely well attended, and by a younger crowd than would be in a similar class in the US. Went to dinner with Anne and Jans at a place that specializes in duck barbeque—yummy! And within walking distance!

Saturday was a grueling day of street entertaining. I was scheduled for WAY too much time and the place was really busy. I was pretty exhausted for the afternoon classes, but rallied to get to the gym and then a birthday dinner at another w/in-walking-distance restaurant and then another birthday celebration at the pub. A late night.

Sunday…bad weather and lower attendance, so I got a bit of a breather. I spent my street edutaining time going between restaurants and talking to kids there (warm and dry!). I’ve got two classes again, then will hit the gym, go to improv, and then—lord help me—a toga party. Yes. Toga. I don’t have normal sheets, so I’m wearing a big scarf and a sign that says “Sari it’s not a toga.” When at a loss for a costume, go for the pun, I always say.

Tidbits: The Koreans love their fluorescent lighting. EVERYTHING is lit with the darned harsh bulbs. Even upscale restaurants—it’s considered hip and romantic. UGH. Perhaps when I get to a museum or two it will be different…

Forsythia—we have it here! And it’s gorgeous—but now on its way out. Azaleas abound, too. And things are starting to turn green and pretty. Hooray!

Cell phones: In Korean culture, it’s considered rude not to answer your cellphone, wherever you may be or whatever you may be doing (teachers seem to have a little leeway). So people answer their phones in restaurants, meetings, etc. They don’t, however, scream on their phones the way we do. Don’t know how they achieved that miracle…

At the gym: remember those machines with the ‘fat burning’ vibrating belt that were popular decades ago? No gym or spa here is without them. They may not do anything about the fat, but they feel great! You just step into the belt (it makes a ‘U’ from either side of the machine around you), lean into it with it around your back or hips or wherever, and turn it on. Watch it jiggle, see it wiggle…

Taxes? What taxes?

Check out the "corporate films" at the English Village link--you want the PR one. It's about 5 minutes long; I'm the witch.

Thurs, April 6: Taught, without much trouble, my first classes here. Glad I’m good at winging it! Kids are very cute, except for the ones we want to drop-kick. It’s difficult to determine what English level they’re at, in terms of distinguishing between shyness and low ability, but we’re trying to work some stuff into the classes so we can suss that out as soon as possible. Went for my first swim in the gorgeous 25-meter pool—low-chlorine but crystal clear, cool, and with lots of natural light. Hooray! Then met up with Anne for food, wine and conversation at Greenspace in Heyri (more on that soon), where we were treated to extra glasses of wine….so I was late to a showing of “Office Space,” courtesy of our community events team. Nice to have free ,pre-planned showings of good movies of all varieties less than a 5-minute walk from my apartment! Woohoo!

Fri, April 7: More of the same teaching, a rehearsal for the parade that should have been in our schedule but wasn’t, and it was WAY too much for us to learn in one hour, so we all got frustrated and pissed off, and then frustrated and pissed off that we were frustrated and pissed off over something that was dumb, when we easily could have just not rehearsed it and let them see what it would look like with three people doing what 10 had been doing (we’re now on split schedules, so the parade had to be rechoreographed with half the people). We recalibrated and joined our friends to celebrate the birthday of a co-worker at a restaurant in nearby Gumchon, then went to a bar where the pull is the wacky bottle-throwing/juggling show the bartenders do.

Sat, April 8: street entertaining (and most of the kids now here for specific programs are way too old and too cool for our schtick, so we’ve got major revamping to do) and teaching, then a passion party at Anne’s (she’s the queen of “underground” parties that pretty much encourage scantily cladness and dirty-mindedness by the end of the evening). I didn’t stay too late (I left partway into the group grope, if that gives you any idea), as I was getting that dry-throat, warm-faced feeling that felt like a cold…

Sun, April 9: felt a little better, did the street edutaining and classes, hit the gym for a quick workout, and was all set to crash early…but was listening to FUV’s Sunday morning program and heard that my high school pal, Rachel Sage, was going to be interviewed at 11pm my time, so of course I stayed up! What better reason? So crazy to listen to radio from home, and to someone I know on the radio to boot! Teehee!

Mon, April 10: Slept for 10 hours and spent a blessed part of the day in my pajamas! Hooray! Felt better, so went for a 90-min. run mostly along the DMZ(!) Not as bad as you’d think: Where I am, the DMZ is along a river. On our side is a major roadway, flanked by dirt paths. Ya can’t go to the barbed-wire side closest to the water, but you CAN run along the path on the S. Korean side—and wave to the guys at the other end of the tunnel to the N. Korean side (the guys are S. Korean, obviously). How crazy is that? It was a great run, I hit the gym afterwards, then a couple of hours later started feeling crappy again, so bailed on chorus. Right about at this time, we were starting to hear about some of our co-workers having to go to the hospital b/c they were coughing up blood. It turns out (and I’m not sure exactly how I really missed it, except for that fact that there seems to always be a layer of dust on everything here) that we’d had a MAJOR dousing of Yellow Dust from the Gobi Desert in China—one of the worst since 2002, when it made all kinds of international news. Ah. Everyone is okay, but it's a week later and we're all still hacking away. I think I'm over the worst of it, but clearly have to find a website that has updated info on the scene so I know when to run inside (yuck). Slept for 9 hours…

Tues, April 11: got some work done, felt better, went for a 2-hr ride (I hadn’t heard about the dust factor yet), then into Ilsan (45-minutes by bus) for some wandering and grocery shopping w/Elana. We got some excellent stripey socks for dirt cheap, found some soft-serve ice cream, and stocked up on veggies for the week. Didn’t make it back in time for a screening of “Frailty,” but I’m gonna borrow it and watch it on my own.

Wed, April 12: felt terrible. I’m blaming it all on the dust, as my cold symptoms didn’t happen the way they usually do and the sleep wasn’t taking care of it. Made it through the day; fortunately we’re really low on kids this week, as the One Day Program’s bookings don’t pick up until May. Went to a meeting of Visual Arts practitioners and fans and found out more about the AMAZING place that Heyri Art Village is, just next door. Painting, sculpture, floral art, architecture, film, music…you name it—it’s there! It’s government-sponsored (they lost a whole lot of tourism money when they cracked down on prostitution and so are now pouring money into the arts…), but these artists are already extremely well-established, if not outright famous. Much of it is still under construction, it’s evolving before our eyes, and there are fantastic opportunities to develop relationships with their community. Anne always says it’s the reason she took this job. I’m so excited about all the performances, exhibitions, classes, and hang-out spots—let alone the cool people! Check out the links! Most Excellent!

Thurs, April 13: classes, meeting (the weekend parade is cancelled—it took too many teachers out of the classroom and wasn’t at an appropriate age-level for the kids we have coming now). Exercised INSIDE, nice and easy, and worked some of the phlegm outta the ol’ system. Put on my comfies, took out my contacts, popped some popcorn, and went to watch “Memento” in the seminar room (I’m seeing more movies here than I have in YEARS at home!).

Friday, April 14: classes, some empty, but that gives us time to get other stuff done, so it’s all good. Swam before a meeting about the status of our soccer league, which is not what we want it to be; the fitness center is not being cooperative in the western way we’d like them to be. They’re not as connected to us as we’d all (including the Director of Ed) thought, and have little incentive to cater to our desires—even though we’re paying members. It’s been a source of major frustration for all. We’ll see.

This weekend will be street entertaining and teaching, and on Saturday I’ll run right over to Heyri for a special performance of Korean folk music and dance that our visual arts and otherwise interested folks were specially invited to attend, with a reception to follow. Sunday’s workday will be followed by an improv group session and another underground party, themed “Hail Spring, Hail Fertility!” (‘hic)
I have Mon-Wed off, and plan to see the cherry blossoms at their peak, probably in the big park in Seoul, go to Heyri to explore some galleries and have lunch, try a new restaurant somewhere, and explore on bike and on foot. There’s also the first meeting of the Cooking Group, and a Euro Party to welcome the new staff, and a soccer game. Eeeeek! Hopefully I’ll sneak in some sleep, too!

Other fun stuff involves watching the dramas of relationships play out—co-working, neighboring, romancing. It will be interesting to see how they all evolve in this tiny little community where you’d be hard-pressed to keep any sort of secret. The straight single guys are definitely enjoying their ratio to the single women, and the influx of mostly female Eastern Europeans should merely add to their fun, much to the dismay of many, no doubt! Most amusing—many are not too far out of college (or at least the mentality) and easily fall back into the behavior (and their bodies can take the partying…).

Socially, we pretty much spend most of our time off with the other people on our shifts. Some work weekdays from 1-9, and we don’t see a whole heck a lot of them, except in passing. The ODP teachers have all been switched to one of 2 weekend schedules, as they realized that the bulk of our traffic will be on the weekend—but we’re still only on the same shift with half of our population. Hopefully there will be a free night (imagine!) when I can have a party for people I don’t see enough of…

Good luck with the taxes, good luck at the Boston Marathon, Happy Ides of April, Happy Easter! I’m goin’ to bed early—Good Friday, indeed!

SEND ME NEWS, KIDS!
Xoxo
s

LEAD UP TO OPENING DAY

Yet another full week…and more…has flown by…

Sunday 3/26 another day of witchiness, an acupuncture treatment and a fun party with a “fetish” theme at Anne’s. Oh, the scandal! Another opportunity to break out the (p)leather pants.

Monday 3/27 required some recovery… went for a tour of Heyri Art Village, guided by Anne. An amazing community of well-established artists of all varieties right across the street! Cafés, some restaurants, shops, galleries, events. Yay! Spent way too much of the day afterwards going to EMart (the cab that never came, spending 20 minutes trying to find my co-shoppers who were outside, a missing barcode on a soccer ball that was a MAJOR issue…), but got a quick bike ride (maiden Korean voyage) in—found a 45-minute loop around a mountain. Anne hosted the first meeting of our book group, and after much introducing of literary preferences and experiences and desires, we’ve decided to read “Comfort Woman,” by Nora Okja Keller.

Tuesday 3/28 more training, the first meeting of our soccer teams for some drills (and since I haven’t played since 2nd grade—Vegard’s dad was my coach…), I’m thinking maybe some drills might be good. Alas, there was some Koreaconfusion re: our use of the field, so we couldn’t use it that night. I convinced a couple of the guys to go on a quick run with me, and we had a fun nighttime view of EV from atop a cemetery hill. I also got a little promotion, to Program Coordinator, which basically means that I will be more involved with curriculum development. I’d had many conversations leading up to this, in terms of my wanting to still be in the classroom (the Head Teacher positions involve, ironically, less classroom time and more office-y stuff) and performing. No more money, most likely more hours (though not per contract), but more interesting and challenging work, and hey, admit it: you’re impressed by the title. This basically cuts back my classroom hours but allows me to have a hand in bringing new ideas to the table and to life. I’m really excited about the possibilities, but am surely going to be frustrated by the pace of implementing anything, short- or long-term, given that so much is in the evolutionary stage here. ‘Salright, I’m just gonna have to keep reminding myself...

Wednesday 3/29 egad, so I think we had a parade rehearsal, as we have to adjust things in order to have two versions to accommodate the different staff shifts… Of course, they’re ripping up everything around the main fountain (probably b/c it was done wrong the first time, which is MOST typical here), so we rehearsed around a smaller one and had to divert the construction/dignitary traffic around us and our flags. After lunch, a rehearsal for the 4-minute opening ceremony piece that we’re contributing. It’s crazy dance-y, and I’m on the backup crew. It’s pretty much an effort to make higher-ups who control the pursestrings but have ZERO performance/production experience realize how much professional talent they have here so that they’ll hopefully start giving us funding and serious rehearsal time in our schedules, because right now they don’t get it. I had to cut out early for a “leadership” meeting with the other ‘leaders’ in order to determine the general hierarchy and communication ladder. All good. Chorus at night; we worked on a very simple version of “Seasons of Love.”

Thursday 3/30 All staff met in the cafeteria for some sum-ups, Q&As, briefings, etc. Many of the edutainers spoke about dealing with the media, as there are cameras and reporters EVerywhere here, and it freaks a lot of people out, After all of that hooha, I met with our Director of Education, another teacher who is starting the soccer league, and two guys from the fitness center and it’s head company. The two guys were total jerks, but at least our Dir of Ed knows it and is on their case on our behalf. I got to email our listserve with the results of the meeting and tried to be positive about it. Oy.

After that I booked over to opening ceremony rehearsal, then grabbed some dinner before a Team Rescue (our official EV social planning group for all-inclusive events) trivia night, which was good fun, involved a lot of yelling and was generally very well done. I went home instead of joining the gang for a crazy night of further drinking…

Friday 3/31 Retreat! We had our all-staff retreat, and went to a nearby observatory (as in observing North Korea). It was really odd...a random art exhibit, videos (totally neutral and vague on the whole situation, then North Korean acrobats and trapeze artists doing ridiculous stunts—the Koreans all react with bigger gasps than we do; I’ve noticed this before but it was really apparent here), a presentation on what you’re looking at and what they presumably want you to see, then big gift shops with all kinds of stuff. After that we all were bused to a movie complex with a spa next door. We had an option of movies (I saw “V for Vendetta,” which was sometimes a little annoying but mostly really cool and creative), then went to the spa.

Oh, the spa. There’s an area that’s single-sex with a sauna, steam room, 2 quite warm tubs (one tile, one wooden), one REALLY COLD tub with a massage shower and jets that shoot up from the floor—great for the feet, and then…oh! OOOOOOOH! They shoot up pretty strongly, pretty high. One can get scrubbed, massaged, etc, for additional fees (I didn’t this time, but will on another visit!). You pretty much go in naked, shower, and go back and forth between the funspots. Some people avoided the naked area, but those of us who are used to dressing rooms and being on stage had no problem. After we’d had our fun there, we put on our little spa outfits and headed for the communal area, with huge open warm floors with mats, massage machines of many varieties, limited weights/cardio equipment, a “sleeping room” and a smallish but big enough lap pool. I got into exercise mode and knocked myself out, figuring that since the place cost somewhere between $6 and $15 for all the areas I wanted to be in, I’d BE BACK. Oh, YES. I WILL. It’s not far away. HOORAY! Apparently these are all over Korea. Oh, Korea. YeeHaw!

We bused back to EV, and Don arrived around nine with all kinds of western goodies. We went to a party on campus, I introduced him around, and the crowd went wild for his robotic dancing. Good fun. Our resident fire-eater put on his show, and there was general revelry.

Sat 4/1 OY. We dragged ourselves out of bed, I burned some banana pancakes, and we headed to Seoul for the day. Anne was guiding an “erotic” tour, and we probably got to about half of the stuff she had planned, but a good time was had by all. We took a breather in a DVD bang, which is a business that rents small rooms and a DVD for 2 hours…ie high school kids go there to make out. Post-DVD, we hit a cave-themed bar/restaurant downstairs, where 3,000cl beers awaited us. After that, we hit a great wine bar (and at this point we were down to a group of 5) and then a dance club. Don, Elana and I headed out for a more hoppin’ club, expecting to meet up with other teachers, but our contact wasn’t answering his phone. Fortunately, Don knows the scene and we had a great time shaking our groove things at a big and loud techno club and then spectating at a tucked-away salsa club. We left around 3 or 4, and since the subways close b/t 12 and 5, we crashed in Don’s car (easier for the brief time than locating a Jinjabong—a cheap place to sleep) before catching the subway/train home.

Sun 4/2 Oof. Took a nap before rehearsal, which wasn’t as painful as it could have been. We rehearsed inside and then on the “stage” we’d be using on Monday, and got a lot sorted out. I booked to the gym for my first workout there (YAY!) and discovered that little of the info they’d given us at our formal meeting was accurate. Ugh. Went home and bed felt GOOD!

Mon 4/3 Opening Day! For Real! We had rehearsal at 8am…finally got to perform around 11:30 (it went really well), I hit the street as Wanda the Witch for a few hours (very little performing, mostly posing behind the governor and other bigwigs while they were interviewed), had lunch, then went back to my apartment to get a little stuff done before a bike ride and a trip to the gym, which was great, but included a moment of cultural faux pas… As I wrote to our listserve:

"A bit of fitness wisdom for the new facility: You need to use either your own "inside" shoes or their "rental" (free) shoes in the fitness room. If you should opt for the latter strategy, ya take off yours and put on theirs and re-swap them to their original location when you're done. What you should NOT do (and I'm a fool, but I blame Baz, as he advised me and I was only following his example): put your shoes in the convection oven-y looking thing over the shoes. This, I was informed by a mortified staff member, after I'd placed my shoes (Baz's were there but he's already escaped) in said contraption, is to sterilize the HEADPHONES. Yes. NOT THE SHOES.
"Fortunately, he accepted my profuse apologies and laughed with (okay, probably more AT) me. He left as I was sheepishly putting my street shoes on, but of course he went into the staff room (and if I'd been he, I would have run right in to tell them about the foreign MORON, which I'm sure is exactly what he did), which I had to pass to get out...so I stuck my head in there to indicate that I was aware of my moronity... Hopefully redemtion won't be beyond EVentual reach...

"What can I say. Don't let it happen to you. Every time I see this particular staff member, I think I'll pretend that I'm gonna stick something new into that thing... "

Yep. Fortunately I’d already established myself as the blonde chick who knows her way around the freeweights…

Later in the evening I headed to Anne’s for the first meeting of the Shamanism group. She’s working on what was a non-fiction piece but is now a novel on the subject, and it’s just a really interesting subject. I was going to “audit,” but of course I’ve been sucked in. It’s a religion that very much underlies other religious and pervades many societies, but is uniquely very actively practiced in Korea, so we’re in an ideal place to study it. It should provide an interesting and new perspective on the culture as we’re experiencing it.

We tried to go to the pub for a beer afterwards, but they closed at 10, instead of 11 as they’d told me that morning. Ah, Korea… as Don puts it, too much business is just a hassle.

Tues 4/4 Day ‘off’—hah! I went to classes in my content area, as I’ve missed lots of training while street edutaining and rehearsing and have to teach stuff I don’t know very well and have never taught…on Thursday. It’s not really complicated, but I needed to review it, so there I was. Got in a good run and a trip to the gym (they all know me already—most likely b/c of the shoe incident…I’m going to get an index card so I can write their names down…) before a meditation session (good but not my style of meditation, I think—whew, I can eliminate one activity!) and then the movie Taegukgi (amazing, hugely violent in war reenactments, the most difficult-to-watch movie I’ve ever experienced; our math determined that it’s 15x the gore of Saving Private Ryan…the best-selling Korean movie ever, http://www.lovehkfilm.com/panasia/taegukgi.htm) with the film group. Went home emotionally drained and stunned. Had a long talk with two of the entertainers who needed to use a phone to get a ride to their apartments…and they are having a really rough time because the production company that was hired by EV and through whom they were hired doesn’t know a thing about producing or about taking care of people. Yeouch.

Wednesday 4/5 Another ‘Day off.’ Had a meeting with the Head Teacher of the ODP, with whom I’ll be working closely, and who was promoted to that position from the one I’m taking over. Good talk about immediate and long-term issues. Went to another class, then the ‘clinic’ to see what their ‘class’ is like, then to sign up (finally!) for a cellphone (YIKES—the cheapest phone available was $210, then a $200 deposit that will be refunded, then a $55 start-up fee, plus something else I’m forgetting—I shelled out $520. I’m hoping to resell the phone when I leave) that we should get tomorrow, then lunch before getting back to work. I did get a ride in, though, and had a night off to do some more work and catch up on this puppy.

We have, over the last several days, had an influx of staff: Russians and Eastern Europeans of all varieties, who are street performers and staff for the commercial facilities (restaurants and stores). I’m not sure how many…I’m guessing about 50. The entertainers seem to have somewhere in the vicinity of zero English ability, which is going to be problematic and is indicative of the planning issues here. But I met some Romanians today who are quite fluent, so there is hope!

For my training buddies: I’m running regularly, mostly a mix of pavement, cement and trails. Lots of it is through cemeteries, farms and military trenches(!). Very hilly. I’m feeling slow, but don’t have a regular timed route…gotta get on that. There are other runners here, and a few who are pretty good, but we’re all on different schedules, so we haven’t figured that all out yet.

As for cycling, I’ve only been out three times. The main roads are very big and designed to accommodate more traffic than I’ve actually seen on them, so while they aren’t all that pretty, the traffic can easily leave me a full lane, and so far the vehicles are better about leaving me room than in the US. I’ve been doing the “keep the mountain on your right” type of exploration at first. The smaller roads I’ve tried tend to turn potholey or unpaved and sometimes deadend, so I’m saving those for when I acquire a cheap mountain bike. Once I have the phone and some miles under the saddle I’ll explore farther away, and just today found stuff that seemed to lead in good directions. Not Greenwich, but what is? And when this place turns green, it’ll be gorgeous. The pool is open (it looks to be about 25m) and I will most likely swim tomorrow. I got about 20 minutes in at the spa. Hopefully I’ll get time to research the tri scene soon.
No daylight savings here…boohoo! My favorite day of the year—and POOF! Gone. Alas. But it is warming up and starting to feel springlike. Yay!

Wildlife: Birds. Plenty of birds. Some that scare the bejeezus outta me when I’m running because they make a lot of sudden noise. I’ve seen exactly two deer, and not a single squirrel, raccoon, chipmunk, skunk or other critter. No roadkill. I’m not sure what that’s all about, but it’s weird. I haven’t even seen much in the way of insects.

I’ve yet to see a postcard here in Korea (thanks to those who have sent me one!). I do know that there is cool stationery available at the Art Village, so I’ll surely get some whenever I can get over there…on a “day off.” I think I’m gonna have to let the workaholic in me have free reign this month until some things settle down and I’m caught up, and then I’ll get very protective of my time off. Exploration and adventure await!

Still loving the kimchi,
s