Rainy day

Hello everyone!

I've been on summer break for 3 days now (5 if you include the weekend) and I have 2 more (4 if you include next weekend). It's been really nice up until today. It's been rainy and cold all day. It's good for the environment though. From what I understand the region hasn't and enough rain this season. It'll make everything that much greener when I'm out hiking and running again. I've actually been feeling a little under-the-weather today anyway. Nothing too bad but a chest cold that has kept me from running or going to the gym today. Anybody who runs or works out regularly knows how annoying it is to not be able to continue a training schedule.

I've found a little coffeeshop not too far from my place and have been spending several night here. It's nice because I've been able to get a lot of writing and reading done. I even made a quick drawing in one of the journals the owner has left on the tables for customers to fill. I've really been wanted to get back into a more creative routine again. I bought a sketchbook and some pencils to facilitate this. I haven't drawn anything yet. My apartment, while I appreciate it for being free, is not a very warm or inspirational place. I need to get some plants and put something on the walls.

I've been really good about keeping track of what I eat and what I'm spending my money on. With a dual-goal of getting into shape both physically and financially it's necessary for me to really know exactly what is going into my body and what is coming out of my wallet. I haven't been very good about this in the past but have found some helpful websites and Excel spreadsheets that make it quite a bit easier to inventory.

It's been really nice having a break from work, the kids, and the classrooms. I enjoy teaching but I'm finding that I don't enjoy it at a Korean hagwon (학원), private school. I really am much less of an English teacher and much more of a person that is paid because I am a white, native English-speaker. My job is not to make sure that the students learn English as much as it is to make it look like the students are learning English. The parents and director want a stack of completely English books to point to and say, "my child speaks English, just look at all these books!"

I guess even this has its benefits as I am understanding more and more what direction I want to take my life and it has less and less to do with specifically teaching English to speakers of other languages. I wouldn't mind keeping it up it conjunction with other things I find more inspirational. There are several graduate programs I am now turning to that I think will really make my career what I want it to be.

More news to come on that...

June/July Update

Hey all!

I hope this blog finds you all well. I'm doing pretty well myself. The last few weeks have been pretty productive for me. I've decided to run a marathon while I'm here in South Korea. I've been training for about 3 weeks now and feel really good about it. I just finished a 9.3k run this morning through a pretty heavy rain. It was hard to work up the motivation to go but once I was running it felt great to have the fresh rain tapping my face. I've also been watching what I eat a lot more which is harder than I thought it would be here. Luckily, a few of my coworkers are trying to do similar things--get in shape, eat right.

I've been reading regularly, too. I finished Carl Sagan's Cosmos. If you haven't read this and are in anyway interested in the universe, life, and the future of the human species I suggest you take the time to read it. It really goes quickly. I had it done in a week. I'm almost finished with The Conquest of Happiness by Bertrand Russell. I'm not quite as interested in it though.

As for Korea, I haven't been able to do much exploring. I did go on a hike this weekend up a beautiful mountain with a friend. We road his motorcycle there. It was my first time on a motorcycle and it made me want to get one. The mountain was a difficult climb. Not only had I just run a 5k that morning but Koreans don't really understand the concept of a "switchback". Instead of slowly zigzagging up the slope the trails tend to just go straight up the side of the mountain.

I should have my camera again next week so I can post more pictures.