Birthdays, Road trips, Working Weekends, and Acupuncture: The Beginnings of Fall

It's fall in Korea, though the temperatures have hardly supported such a statement. We have been fortunate enough to have some really nice weather with minimal rain and only a few chilly days with extra winds. Sadly, this means that the leaves are hardly turning here on my little island--one of my favorite parts of fall that it appears I will be missing out on this year. Luckily for me, I got my fill of turning leaves in the past four weeks of weekends.

After a relaxing weekend at home, where we left off with the last post, I decided to follow it up with a birthday bash extravaganza for one of my friends here. She obviously knew it was her birthday but she was under the guise that the party was only a pajama themed party with a little bit of "oh yeah, it's your birthday" sprinkled on top. Well, much to her surprise, my friends and I decked out the place with red and white everything (she's from Canada), pictures of famous Canadians, things Canada, and of course, some of her favorite people and things.

Then there was cake, very special ice cream, snacks, drinks, and games. She had been feeling a little home sick so we made sure to make her feel as at home for her big two-seven as possible. We had an epic time and there was loads of laughs and fun had by all in attendance! There were also many wardrobe changes on all parties parts. Who knew we all wore so many things to bed!

October was the month for birthdays of those closest to me (here in Korea) so the following weekend was another celebration weekend, but in a totally different, much more low key way. Steve, one of my coworkers, and I rented a car for his birthday and took a no-actual-destination road trip west and north to see what we could see. We ended up driving straight through Busan, at night, in the pouring rain. And I can tell you, this is not an event I would choose to relive anytime soon. SO stressful! The drivers are nuts, the lines are barely visible most of the time, and the lanes disappear and reappear with a whim, not to mention that there are no actual labels on the roads and street signs are pointless because they are not on maps. But, we made it out of there and to the first stop, a small city named Geyonju. It rained the entire day Saturday, so we walked around in the rain and looked in stores and shops, then headed farther north to see what we could find. The farther north we went, the more the leaves were changing. It really was so beautiful. We ended up in a city called Andong for the remainder of our time. It is famous for its masks. We saw a few temples, the beginnings of a mask festival or show of sorts, looked in more shops and stores, bought some apples from a road side stand from the nicest lady (who spoke no English but we still managed to hang out for about 15 minutes there with her),

and got back in the car to try to make it home at a semi-sensible hour on Sunday to return the car before the place closed. It was a nice relaxing weekend full of fall weather and fall colors. Couldn't have asked for anything more.

This brings us to the dreaded last weekend of the month, and with it comes weekend program. And given the month it is no surprise that weekend program was Halloween themed. Usually I wouldn't mind this but due to circumstances and fate I suppose, this turns out to be the biggest weekend program enrollment of the year and we are short staffed (oh, and I have two parties I would like to be attending but alas, I cannot because I will now be working BOTH days of weekend program--awesome). It took so much prep work to get ready, not to mention staying until 8pm (we get off at 530-6pm usually) to clean and set up for Sunday's program, and the days themselves were hectic, busy, a bit stressful at times, and kind of trying.

But again, overall, it was a successful weekend as the children really seemed to enjoy themselves and when you really think about it, there's not much left to complain about once the initial sting of it all fades away. I wouldn't sign up to have next year's program be like this one, but it's over and we all survived, so that's a win in my book.

Even though there was no dressing up, no (adult) Halloween parties, no candy, and no drinking Halloween weekend, I was exhausted. Because I had already work for my five day work week, then both days of weekend program, then another five days of work, it kind of goes without saying that I was dragging my feet Sunday evening hoping it would make a difference on how soon Monday morning and day 8 of my 12 day work week would come. Sadly, it did not. But, luckily for me, the week flew by very fast. We had all middle school students all month in October, so Monday brought with it the freshness of about 80 fourth graders! It was actually a really fun week and it went by very quickly, giving way to yet another weekend of fun in Korea.

After such a long stretch of working days, all I wanted to do was lay around on Saturday, but I am truly glad that I had prior plans already set that forced me out of bed and off to see some new things in Korea. The road trip to the temple that was planned weeks before that had been rescheduled was back on the itinerary, one short sadly, and destination changed, but I was still looking forward to it. As it was supposed to rain all weekend (which it thankfully didn't) the once three hour in one direction trek turned into a trip to Busan, which I was not as excited about because I have been to Busan many times already and was really looking forward to seeing something new in/of Korea. Good thing I spoke too soon, grasshopper! Our friend Louis surprised us with a stop at the horse racing park just outside Busan before we headed into Busan for lunch at a traditional Korean restaurant, then to a really interesting Buddhist temple that was built on the side of the rocky face of a mountain overlooking the sea.

The horse park was not just a race park but also a bit of a themed park (as is most of Korea it seems). Only pictures can describe the humorousness that laid in store for us in such places as horstory land and Pony Island. It was a real hoot!

After spending a few hours walking around, enjoying the sun and the company, and taking tons of photos, it was back into the car and off to find the traditional Korea restaurant that was recommended by a friend of my friend. It took us a bit of effort to find it, but it was more than worth the expedition to get there! It was like a tiny village nestled right in a little nook of Busan. It really was like being taken back to a simpler time in Korea without all the cellphones, sky scrapping buildings and apartments, noise and chaos, and business of bali bali bali. I loved getting lost in the moment, in this place, only to look beyond whatever I was caught up in to see the buildings of Busan standing in the background. Makes me smile still just to think of it.

The lunch was as good as the little village like area that it was housed in. We enjoyed our food and some nice conversation, as well as the company of a small, curious little boy who would come near, but not too close, just to take a peek at the foreigners. After we finished our food we took a wander around the grounds looking at all the interesting nicknacks and old bits of childhoods and lives past. Then it was time to find the temple.

Sadly, the whole point of our road trip was left to last with fading sunlight scooting us along, but we still enjoyed all the temple that was available to us. We took many photos and took in the overall peace and beauty of the area. As the sun touched down on the horizon line, we began to make our way back to the car for our trek home, which was a bit long, but enjoyable. Upon arriving home, it finally felt like the first moment of my first day off in an overdue amount of time. Ahhhhh. Sigh of relief and collapse.

HackySack type game at Jumble Sale

Sunday was spent as a big pile of mush not doing anything that required anything, and it was lovely. Then it was back to work on Monday for a back to back elementary three day/two day program followed by a mandatory day of work on Saturday (this past Saturday the 12th) to help with the Charity Jumble Sale being put on by our school. In case you are wondering, a jumble sale is an awful lot like a garage sale, only with games, music, face painting, and a giant mechanical mouse in red overalls. Though I was not thrilled to be working yet another Saturday, it ended up being a lot of fun and it went by really quickly. Saturday night came and went with an early bed time due to exhaustion from the previous week, I would assume, and I fully enjoyed sleeping in my fourteen hours until noon on Sunday. Ahh, the life! Sunday was spent relaxing and just enjoying not being at work. The weather was amazing for a mid November day, so I spent a good deal of time outside on a run and on the roof enjoying the sun and crisp fall temps. 

So that's the weekends from the last post till now. There have been a few things develop throughout the weeks that I will catch you up on here. Like I said, October was all middle schoolers all month, which I was dreading coming into it, but on the other side (and even during it!) I can say that it wasn't as bad as I expected. And to be honest, I actually enjoyed most of them! There was one group of boys (only about 6 or 7 of them from one school) that ended up being really bad. Like, really. Bad. One of them was caught smoking in the bathroom so one of the men at the school hit him with an incredibly nondense stick (I hit myself in the leg with it later and continued doing so three or four more times because I was so surprised by the lack of anything that was felt) after which the boy and some of his friends decided to call the police, then three of them tried to run away. The cops came, talked to the man at our school, and the boys (who had been successfully collected from their attempt at escape) and nothing really resulted from it. Thankfully, this was the last of their three days with us and this all happened at around lunch time, so they weren't our problem for much longer. Other than that, the middle schoolers were actually kinda fun (just don't tell anyone I said that). But, knowing that we were only going to have two middle schools coming for a total of four days in November didn't upset me too much either. There's a nice balance, ya know.

Beyond the drama of the month of middle schoolers, I started receiving acupuncture on my left shoulder as it had been giving me issues since the scooter incident back in July! My boss took me to one of the local oriental clinics in Okpo, explained the problem then said "tah tah! good luck!" and I was left on my own with my seven words of Korean and their 13 words of English! Turns out that the doctor and his wife own the clinic, and all the ladies that work there are amazingly kind and sweet, and they are all very lovely people who truly enjoy having me come in to see them, despite the language barrier that exists. Kindness really does transcend language. The owners have three lovely children (two of whom I have had the privilege to personally meet) and I quite enjoying helping them practice their English while I am in for my treatments. It has taken a few weeks of regular visits, but I can definitely see improvement in the pain levels and the ROM in the shoulder. Hoping to be pain free again soon! But, I will find other reasons and ailments to go in for as I have really grown to love my visits there.

Other than that, there has been talk of contract extension, going home in August, not going home until 2013 (as was the original "plan" when I left in March), shaving my head, getting a faux hawk, dive instructors courses in Malaysia, and a month or more of Tai Chi study in China, none of which is solid, for sure, or guaranteed. There has also been about 13 new things added to my "things to do and places to go" list as well as a few combinations of places and things leaving the list at a staggering 286, therefore I have decided that I officially can never die or I won't be able to fit it all in! Things are hitting a point where they are both sad (because I have now been gone from those I love longer than any other stretch of absence before) and exciting, (because I am nearing the end of my obligations here and am looking very much forward to what might lie ahead for me) but I am trying to just live in each moment of each day and not put too much thought into what lies before me or behind me. I have made it thus far through my adventure in Korea and I know that I have many more to go before I am through. Here is yet another month of weekends and happenings on the wanderings that are my life.