The Miscellaneous Blog Post

This will be the most miscellaneous blog entry ever. Just a warning.

Today (and yesterday) has found me doing a very common thing for English teachers known as: Desk warming. What is desk warming? When there are no scheduled classes (due to exams, sports days, school holidays or whatever) but your ass still has to be there. IE: You have to warm the desk. Some schools are very nice and don’t make their English teachers come in these days, but not all of us are so fortunate. On these days, I lesson plan for the next few weeks and exhaust the internet. I have successfully exhausted the internet.

A LOT has happened in the past few weeks. I am sorry I haven’t blogged for a few weeks. I am always kept on my toes via Facebook messages from many of you with gentle reminders to blog again! They are nice, I know some people are reading ( :

Sometimes blogging is difficult. Because you are either still processing events (good or bad) have a lot of shit going on, or your wrists and arms are killing you because yesterday on Desk Warming Day #1, your school decided a good use of your time would be to type out all 3 grade’s English textbooks. That was fun, lemme tell you!

Anywho, lots of stuff back home and here in Korea has been a’happening. Some of which will be mentioned here, some not! But, needless to say, the last two weeks have been a bit crazy for me and at times I wish I could just get on an airplane and fly home (for some good reasons too!).

Two weeks ago, I went to Seoul for the day with my school for a field trip. We saw a palace, a museum and a show called Nanta. Think broadway show: Stomp meets Benihanas with a soundtrack. It was weird. The girls all loved it. The trip was done on a pimped out purple bus complete with a flatscreen TV and Noraebang (karaoke), which the girls utilized to its maximum potential (and volume) to and from Seoul. It was an experience for sure.

Two weekends ago (a few days after I went with my school) I went to Seoul with Chris because his parents were in town. We spent Saturday being tourists and hit up a palace, a beautiful stream that winds its way through Seoul for about 6 km, hiked up to Seoul Tower and went on the worst bus tour in the history of the World. I have decided that most palaces here look relatively the same, which is unfortunate. I now have seen the most famous and most beautiful; I may leave it at that. We had initially planned on taking a cable car ride (well, not really “cable car” its suspended in air, what are those called?) Anyways, but the line was suuuuuper freaking long. So, Chris’ parents went back to their hotel room and Chris and I hiked up the mountain. It was a bit of a steep climb and I was in inappropriate footwear, but the scenery was beautiful! The cherry trees were blooming, so it was quite a sight. When we got up to the tower, there was another enormous line to get up the tower! So, we hiked our asses all the way up only to turn around because we had a bus tour that we had plans to go on and wouldn’t have had time. Sigh, sad days. But, got some exercise in…I guess. Lol.

We ventured off for the Night City tour of Seoul that would be later dubbed the World’s Worst Bus Tour…Ever. The pictures on the site of what you see were awesome! All over Seoul, to really pretty things with lights. Instead? We saw 12 industrial bridges. They came with narration that went something like, “this bridge symbolizes the eternal strength and economy of Seoul” or “The intertwined pillars represent the friendliness of Koreans where they come together.” No.Joke. Oh, I forgot. We also saw apartment buildings. That was it. Literally. Nothing cool, nothing famous. I was PISSED! Not only did we get RIPPED, I also got sick (of course). So, when in Seoul, skip the night bus tour. You can pay me half of what you would have spent ( :

The next day found us all in Itaewon, where the American base is located. It is a neighborhood in Seoul known for western restaurants that aren’t found everywhere in Korea (Quiznos and Taco Bell for example) in addition to the standards found all over (McDonald’s, Cold Stone, Baskin Robbins) and a slew of international restaurants (Mexican, Greek, Middle Eastern, Indian etc…). There is also a Foreign Food Market and an English bookstore here; in addition to clothes for people who are, “too fat” for Korean stores aka normal sized westerners. We hit up Quiznos first (delicious) and then went to the bookstore (Whatthebook). I bought 5 books!! I went a little crazy at the sight of books. I am an avid reader and can’t not buy books. I thought about buying a Kindle…but what about the books? So, I stayed old fashioned. I have already accumulated 7 books here in Korea, so getting them home will be interesting. I can’t leave a book behind! After whatthebook, we went to the Foreign Food Mart where we both got TONS of foreign food. My haul included in house made hummus (delicious! The store is run by Indians, so there is a ton of Indian/middle eastern stuff), whole wheat pitas, soft shell tacos, taco shells, chili powder, dried black, kidney and garbanzo beans, dried lentils (all very big bags for cheap!), feta cheese, assorted condiments that are difficult to find and a Ritter chocolate bar all the way from Germany. Delicious! I ate so many of these while backpacking through Europe, best chocolate anywhere, I think ( :

It happened to be Easter that day, so after Chris said goodbye to his parents, we headed back to my place (I am about 90 minutes outside Seoul on the train), and I made deviled eggs! It was nice to have a little bit of Easter with me here in Korea. I had a ton of Easter goodies too from my care package from my Mom/Grandma/Aunt. Monday morning (Easter afternoon back in the states) I was able to Skype with my family at my Aunt’s house! It was almost as if I was there. I really wonder how people did long separations like this before technology. It just makes everything easier. You can actually SEE what is going on. I guess letters. But, it must have been hard.

I am sure most of you have seen on Facebook, but yes, I ended things with Chris. It was a hard decision, but I knew it was the right thing to do. Sometimes, things just don’t work out and that’s ok. Life moves on. We are on friendly terms and I wish him nothing but the best. He is going back to Australia shortly and I wish him much luck in happiness in his life.

In other relationship news, my sister and her boyfriend, Shyawn, got engaged!! This was a very exciting and also hard moment for me. I am not there (obviously) and am not there to share in the excitement and the surrounding events that lead up to weddings. Thankfully, the wedding will be when I am back stateside (well, really, who knows where the hell I will be). Well, technically the wedding won’t be stateside, but in Cancun!!! Sweet! Very excited for the wedding and very happy that my sister has found true happiness with Shyawn.

Ok, back to regularly scheduled programming.

I have decided that the first two months here for me were the worst/suckiest time of the year. Why? There were no days off in March or April, and now through the rest of my time here there are a ton of days off, vacation time or lots of desk warming. It also means there will be lots to look forward to constantly to keep me sane here. This summer I have plans to go to Jeju Island here in Korea for the beaches and some diving, go to the beach in Busan for a weekend, the beaches a few times in my area (the West coast) for swimming and a mud festival! In August I will (hopefully, fingers crossed) be headed over to Japan for two weeks with a friend during vacation. Potentially considering going to Beijing over a 4-day weekend in September, but it’s a bit too far out to plan just yet. But, lots of exciting stuff coming up in the coming months, plus warm weather and sunshine!!

I am settling into a routine here the past few weeks, finally. I go to my tiny little gym 3 or 4 days a week, usually right after school, I am in a book/knitting club and we had our second meeting last weekend. Yes, you read that correctly book and knitting club. I came to Korea and turned 85, Korean ages are different than Western ages. But, the club is fun and there is always lots of discussion!

This weekend I should be heading to Seoul (again) and going to get my feet eaten by fish to get rid of the dead skin…so look forward to that post! A friend from graduate school is coming to Seoul for business, so I will be back up there in a few weeks seeing here as well, so that will be fun! I really love Seoul, I think it is my favorite part of Korea! It is nice I am so close and it only costs about $7 to get up there. 

In other news, I am now brining my own lunch to school. I just decided around $60 a month for lunch (school lunch) and almost always being hungry, just wasn't worth it. So, even though I was afraid of stepping on some toes, I asked if it would be ok to bring my own lunch and not pay for school lunch. My coteacher was like, "yes, of course, you are vegetarian. I thought you would before, I was very worried." He had this look on his face like, hello? Why haven't you been doing it all along? So, I no longer have to sift through meat trying to find edible bits for me! Yay! It is amazing how happy I am eating my own lunch and not being hungry all day, makes the day much better!.

I think that is about it for now. My wrists are screaming at me for typing so much in the past few days. But, it is official: I will be home in less than a year. The remaining time in Korea+travel after in SE Asia, is now down to less than a year! It seems forever away, but I know time goes by in an instant. Trying to enjoy my time here, but it has been difficult at times. But, tomorrow is a day off, followed by one day of school, the weekend, and then two more days off!! Wooo!!!

Talk to you all soon. Love ya!

Kimberly