life

So its freezing cold over here. I remember my grandma telling me that the wind almost cuts your cheeks... It painfully true... On the plus side its very sunny and beautiful even if its really windy. We were expecting snow but I haven't seen it... Everyone tells me its coming though.

Recently I've been trying not to be too homesick... Its hard being so far away but I know every things okay and it will go back to normal as soon as I return.... I'm stressing about money though... my students are so unreliable! Today I only have one lesson! Anyways life goes on and really I am happy I am exploring Korea relaxing at home reading books, working out, cooking new recipes, making friends, and enjoying life... Its just kind'a hard to sleep at night when my head starts thinking about everything I am missing... I see Olympia is flooded and the rains keep coming.... I hate rain but I miss it too...

People are very kind here just the other day a blind man was walking into a wall just off the subway and I man grabbed his arm and helped him up the stairs and out of the subway. I also watched a young woman with a bag that was too heavy for her walking along and an elderly man just grabbed it from her and carried it onto the subway without a word. Its things like this that make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside!

Another thing I have noticed is more of an empathy towards beggars. I see a lot of them on the subways and people are always giving them money or helping them in some way. One man had his head down in a bow with a cup in front of him just sitting on the steps to the subway... I thought it was so respectful compared to the beggars that follow you around asking for change... He wasn't saying a word... and when I got back to the station later that night he was still there in the exact same position as if he hadn't moved all day.... These people are usually elderly and usually disabled in some way and I think it most cases it really wasn't their fault.

The grocery store we found gives out stickers for every 5,000won we spend so we almost have a full sheet of stickers and when it is full we turn it in for some prize so I will keep everyone updated on that exciting news!

After working out my back is in pretty bad shape but I've been using some frozen corn as an ice pack to sleep on and I am hoping I can build up some strength in my back so it doesn't get too out of control like before.

I've been contacting my old Japanese exchange student Kazuna for help in this trip to Japan. She has helped us find some great hostels and it looks like we will be staying with Asay/Eisei (I found out his name is spelled Eisei) at his parents house for some of the trip so that should be very interesting. He is really sweet and is helping us with all our arrangements so hopefully everything will work out. His family is Korean but they live in Japan so they all speak Japanese but he came to Korea to learn Korean. He's a sweetheart and very innocent. Whenever we joke around him he thinks we're serious and its quite funny to see how gullible he is. This is common here. They enjoy more slapstick humor than anything else and most everything else is lost so I don't really bother to crack jokes. Eisei loves sarcasm though and is starting to know when we are joking... Other times we'll say something and he'll look at as innocently and say "really?"

Eddie has his final test today so he's been studying like a maniac while I just have mini tests with my student Sery. She actually told me yesterday she wants to be named Sally and he motioned that Sery was dead by slicing her neck with her hand. But SALLY is teaching me more Korean than anything else. I give her homework to learn 3 words every Tuesday and Thursday and she makes me learn the Korean word for them. Yesterday was Today, Tomorrow, and Yesterday. So now we both know them! I like this way of learning because its not too stressful but I want to do well so she will take me serious as her teacher and she will study too. (She's only 8 but she loves learning English and is a lot of fun to teach)



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