Back to the Grind

So, its the first week in March, and winter is finally reeling like a boxer in the last round before the bell, although its not without throwing in a few final haymakers in an attempt to bash springs spirits and crush that buzzing sense of excitement that the warm weather and new foliage brings with it. But all in all that crafty bitch Winter will eventually lose and make her way down to the southern hemisphere to bother some australians for a few months before she reels her icy head again next november. The warm(er) weather has allowed me on the chance to get out and see parts of the country that i have not had the oppotunity to see, and hopefully in the coming weeks, we will be well on our way to warm summer weather.

passing the time

another week down, and i spent it with the worse case of tonsilitis that ive ever had in my life. i had a fever of about 104 for like 3 days, i couldnt eat, drink anything, or barely breathe...it was awful. so instead of getting to enjoy the 3 day weekend and valentines day, i spent it on the couch with codey trying not to die.

I have since gotten better, and am looking to try to go snowboarding this weekend, but somehow i keep burning through my money every month because things just keep randomly coming up and costing me an arm and a leg...

either way, im going to try to get out of the house this weekend since i have speen the better part of the last 10 days on my couch trying to stay hydrated, and injesting large doses of antibiotics and pain meds.

it is starting to show some fleeting signs that spring is on the way, and im really excited to see what korea is like with nice weather. when i got here it was awesome for about 2 weeks then the cold set in and it has not let go yet, but soon im thinking within the next 3 to 4 weeks, we will finally get some nice weather and can start enjoying some of beauty of korea, instead of just how incredibly cold it is every day.

Come on Spring....

So its been a while, I wanted to update the awating masses that actually read this thing.

So the holidays are over, Christmas and New Years were enjoyable, Codey and I spent the better part of them in the bottom of a bottle of soju. Caroline arrived on New Years Day, and we had alot of fun touring around Korea, specifically Seoul, getting into trouble, dancing on the subway at 7am getting yelled at by some korean guy, eating some crazy food (or tricking caroline to eat it...)

Elizabeth and Ryan were staying with me for a few weeks after their contracts ended and they were back and forth from the Phillipines, It was nice to have people at my house, and to come home to someone to talk to. But they have left with Caroline and im back to kicking it around Siheung trying to find new places to hang out, eat, drink, and generally pass the time.

I got to go down to Anseong City and check out what Codey's life was like down south and i really enjoyed it, his city is small, and quite different, but i think i enjoyed it a bit more than Siheung. (Siheung is a massive city, it has almost a million people in it and covers a huge area of land...but since it is broken up by small mountians and ricefields you cannot walk anywhere you have to take a bus, and my little neighborhood is completly seperated from everything) Whereas Anseong has more of a community vibe to it, you can walk anywhere in the city, there are shops and resturants close by, a really cool outdoor market (i almost bought a canadian tux...), and some really fun people. About the only negative thing i have to say about it is that it is really far away from seoul, and kind of a pain in the ass to get to, but hey, ya got to work with what your given.

I found out today that Patrick will be here at the end of the month, and somehow scored a job right next to a subway stop (takes me 30-45 min on a good day by bus to get to a subway) but luckily he is really not far from me, and about halfway between me and Seoul, so it will make a convenient stop on the way into the City. I am really excited for him to get here, but at the same time im rather scared....I mean, with Patrick, Codey, and myself all here, this country might not have any clue how to handle it....Korea, you better get ready.

So all in all my voyage into Korean life has continued rather smoothly, I hope all is well back home, ya'll take care now ya hear...

love and respect.

oh intentions...

Hey everyone! Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, all that jazz. My School year has finished. My damn 6th graders are gone, thank god, and I have a few weeks off to rest and recharge for another big semester of getting slapped around by a bunch of snot nosed korean kids.

So i have been told that i do not update this thing enough, that it is sporatic at best and that people would rather hear about my experiences than "esoteric hippie karma bullshit."
Look, I understand that you all want to hear about what is going on, but really there is not too much to tell, life over here is pretty similar to life back home. I get up go to work, sit around in my office and dick around on the internet for 8 hours, go home and hit the gym for a bit, attempt to have a few normal social interactions a week, and patiently wait for the weekend. Its pretty much the exact same thing everyone else that has a desk job does, except that none of my coworkers speak english. But the way that our jobs back home are going...it wont be long till you all are in my situation too...ha.

Christmas here takes on a bit of a different vibe than it did back in the states. Its currently christmas eve and im at work, and will be all day, there are not really any boring christmas parties to go to, nobody wearing awful christmas sweaters or ties with santa on them. None of the drunken arguments with family members, and even drunker apoligies. No last minute rush for shopping, (thank god), none of the awful run in's with people from highschool at the bar you would rather have left in highschool....Its its nice to get away from the crappy part of the holidays but on the other hand, they lack alot of the great stuff that the holidays bring, like the drunken arguments with the family, and even drunker apoligies, the holiday parties that you like going to, getting to see the few friends that only come around during this time of the year, the excuse to open a bottle of whiskey at 11am because "its the holidays," the snow...god i miss the snow, its colder than i have ever experienced here, but there is no snow to speak of. One of the biggest things i miss is the food. What i would for a huge steaming hot bowl of chili with some cheese and sour cream on it...or a bowl of chicken soup and a glass of ginger ale (yeah simple i know but for some damn reason i miss ginger ale...or whiskey and ginger's...im not sure). A few nights at the top of the toe, and all the perks that go along with being there. The sound of silence...no matter where i go, or where i am, there is always some type of human noise.

Overall though, i miss being at home for the holidays. they really dont seem the same when you are not around a bunch of friends and family, even if you friends are unstable drunks, and your family is totaly dysfunctional. I still miss and love the hell out of all of you.

Take care, Merry New Year, Happy Christmas.

Love ya!

the dharma body of the buddha, is the hedge below the garden.

"we live together, we act on, and react to, one another: but always are and in all circumstances we are by ourselves. The martyrs go hand in hand into the arena; they are crucified alone. Embraced, the lovers desperately try to fuse their insulated ecstasies into a single self-transcendence; in vain. By its very nature every embodied spirit is doomed to suffer and enjoy in solitude. Sensations, feelings, insights, fancies - all these are private and, except through symbols and at second hand, incommunicable. We can pool information about experiences, but never the experiences themselves. From family to nation, every human group is a society of island universes."

southern girls dont understand the northern lights

Thanksgiving is tomorrow. I will be spending mine being thankful that there is only one more day in the workweek. I will get up and go to the gym, then spend 8 hours at work, head to my apt to do some laundry, go back to the gym for an hour or two before my hapkido lesson then have Thanksgiving Dinner at a chinese resturant with Miguel, possibly drink a few beers and go to sleep. Only to wake up on friday go back to the gym, work for 8 hours, gym it up before hapkido, and go to sleep.....anyone see a pattern?

Im not saying that having a routine is a bad thing, and im sure that the fact that a 3rd of my day is spent excercising is doing me alot of good...but damn is boring. The weather here has continued to be cold, bringing with it alot of mist and rain, which does not help me get out of my apt. There is a bright side though. I have been able to start saving some money for Thiland, Cambodia, and Vietnam later next year, which will be worth it. I have also commited to Hapkido 5 days a week, so by the time i get back home hopefully none of you will recognize me. I am running in a 10k that my gym is sponsoring in a few weeks, so i have been training for that and getting a decent time down for someone of my running ability. This weekend a group of foreigners have a cabin rented for sat night for a few birthday celebrations which should be a blast.

I dont really have much else to say at the moment.
I have been thinking alot about the holidays recently, it is going to be a change of pace here. Im not sure if the christmas spirit can drift all the way to korea, but we will see.

take care

Our Endless Numbered Days

there are things that drift away, like our endless numbered days. autumn blew the quilt right off the perfect bed she made, and she has chosen to believe in those hymns her mother sings, sunday pulls its children from their piles of fallen leaves.


Its cold. Colder than Cold. Ice Cold. Siberia Cold. Literally. Our wind whips down from siberian plains, and freezes you to the core. I thought I knew the cold, and living in boone for so long I thought that we had become friends. As it turns out, I knew Cold's kid brother Chilly and his twin sister Breezy. I have now been fully introduced to the reckless sonofabitch Cold himself, and his wife Frigid. Even the snow here thinks that Cold is too cold for his own good. Because when it falls it doesnt even attempt to stick around, it flees into gutters and through every door crack it can find to get away from that icy bastard Cold and his mistress.

I have figured out that no matter where you are in the world, an hour or two of walking in the cold with a cup of coffee and some music will do both fantastic and utterly destructive things to your mind, while parts of your head will be breaking itself down, wondering why it is doing what its doing, what really were its motivations, how did it come to be somewhere so unfamiliar, somewhere so cold, with no woodstove to sit next to. Yet the other part of your mind will realize that the vanilla in your coffee has never tasted so much like home, that your jacket has never been more comfortable, the the music in your head never been more beautiful, and how every pile of leaves on the ground looks like one you played in before when you were younger. Somehow its this part of your brain that is making you smile and lift your head while you're walking in the face of that Bastard Cold, while everyone else has their head bowed and face covered. Its this part of your brain that is causing your footsteps to act more like dance moves, and your stride meets that of your music. Your brain balances emotions like a tray of drinks at a salsa bar. You weave through gaps in the room swaying just enough to make things interesting, but fluid enough to not spill a drop. Its this balance that lets you notice that across the room the girl in the red dress just smiled at you.

mabey its not that cold after all.

After all I'm just a boy with a coin.