Six months

Six months today. In a way, my time so far in Korea seems to have moved at a snail's pace, but looking back, it seems to have gone by so quickly. Of course, the mostly downtime of the last six weeks (excluding last week and the week before, where I actually put in O.T.) has gone quickly. It stinks that most of my downtime happens when it is so friggin' cold. But, since the school is not properly heated, it has its advatages. I haven't kept the shoebox properly heated either, but I can always jump under the covers or take a long hot shower. I'm sure my long showers are partly to blame for my last whopper of a utility bill-that I and I actually let the temp go up to 17 or even 18 upon occasion. Not lately, tho. I think my house is colder than Mom ever kept our house. Of course, I am a lot more susceptible tothe cold than I used to be. Sixteen degrees is......60.8 degrees Fahrenheit...yeah, colder than Mom's, fo' sho'. I have to get the school to move me somewhere that isn't LPG-too expensive!

Six months.....wow.

Little bit a Shakin'

PS, We actually had a minor earthquake here the night before last. From the Korean text that came through on my phone, which I can't read, it looked like it was a 4.something, I think. I didn't even feel it, but some coworkers and friends did. I think the epicenter must have been a ways out, but I haven't found anything on the English speaking internet to get details yet. I think the only other one I have been in, in Seattle, was stronger-but that's not saying much.

Sci-fi, Death and Taxes, Oh My!

Week one of immersion camp down. Too bad I have to get up early tomorrow. I get frustrated when I think about how few hours some people have to work, if at all. I try not to think about it too much. If I could sleep in more, I would not be so bothered about it. But, I have been managing to drag myself out of bed, at least. I can only hope that I have a better schedule next semester. It could make all the difference, truly. I must admit, I am entirely too dependant on being able to get enough sleep. Clearly, I must not be able to get enough, or I would be able to ramble on about something a bit more interesting, at least. But, as usual, if you know me well, you know how much of a difference it makes for me.

I am having a heck of a time keeping a schedule. That, and I am going through Stargate withdrawal. Finished a season, and the new program I am trying is taking forever with the next season. As soon as it is done, I am going back to my old program.

Guess I need to bust out some Firefly, so I can get my Sci-fi fix. As much as I like BBC's Hustle, it ain't shiny with big guns, fast flying machinnes, and has no weapons or machines with names like phasers, lassiters, or flux capacitors (sp?), and there are no time paradoxes, black holes, or scientists plotting to blow up suns in order to get out of the latest impossible fix-and look damn good doing it (hey, even the patches on Mal's brown coat just make him look cooler). How American can I be? Ooh, yeah, and Mickey and Danny aren't as drool worthy as Simon Tam. And what can I say-I've had a thing for Richard Dean Anderson ever since MacGyver, and Ben Browder since Crighton first sling shot into a galaxy far far away. Nevertheless, for those of you back home, I recommend the Brit show Hustle. It was playing on AMC, despite the fact that it is not American, nor movie, nor classic. Good grift, though.

Stay tunes for scenes of our next episode....Our intrepid heroine tries to untangle the impossibly labrinthine tangle known as the American tax system. One of the most popular characters, Bridget, returns, to help our heroine-will she be in time before Mal implodes, causing devastation thoughout HallaVersity that could reach as far as the Heungeop Nebula in the B31.34 galaxy?

Skull-less Skully is done!

The basic pattern is Skully from Stitch and Bitch. I did not add any Skulls because I need to be able to look teacherly at school. This is my second sweater, and it is warmer than most sweaters I could get in Korea. Unfortunately, it is already showing some wear after I've worn it only twice. Advice is welcome. Can I wash with dish soap, as wool wash does not exist here, or should I Ebay myself some wool wash? It is Knitpicks Sierra, 70% wool and 30% angora (slightly scratchy, so I need to wear something under it. The shape of the neckline really limits what looks nice.) Will reblocking help?

Anyway, I am fairly pleased with myself. Pardon the lack of a photographer. The color is most accurate in the shot of me wearing it. I modified the pattern slightly. The arms can be a bit of a hassle under a coat, but dang it's warm. Whatcha think?

Back to school.....

...on Monday. I was just getting to a point where I was really loving being on vacation. Well, no, I have been loving it the whole time. Now, I've just gotten USED to it. On the plus side, in just over a month, I will have 2 weeks vacation again. Boy, am I going to miss sleeping in. Getting up on Monday morning is going to be a tough one, I know that already.

Fixed!

Well, Blogger help was no help. But, By process of elimination, I found the right button and changed everything back to English. Hurray!

Korean

Sorry to all who hit comments and see what is almost certainly unintelligible to them. Yep, I can't read it either...it's Korean. For some reason, when I switched to the new blogger, since I am in Korea, Blogger must have ASSumed that I am Korean and would like said interface. l@%$@#!@#$$%%%^^&&*! That is instead of writing swear words in English, Korean, German, Spanish, French, and Swedish.

Trying to get it all sorted out. Your patience in this matter is appreciated. Please pardon our mess while we upgrade for your convenience......blah blah. Oh, yeah, and I haven't done much with pictures since I lost them all.

Skully needs to have lots of ends woven in, then I'll add a picture. I made something for some one back home, but I have yet to get it to the post office, so it shall remain unpictured here. Not that that is a word, but if you know me well, you know that I've a penchant for making up words as I go. Not that I can take credit for all of the unwords that I use. oochee-wahwah-chee-my-way! Jay, did I spell that right?

Bacon!

So, do you remember those commercials for some dog treat or other-I can't remeber the brand-that featured a cartoon dog that was all about the bacon? I don't remember the visuals so much as the sound track. Something like this:

Dog-Bacon!!

Narrator-Your dog won't know that 'name brand here' isn't really bacon.

Dog-Bacon!! (wagging tail)

Narrator continues along the same lines about how it isn't bacon, blah, blah, but your dog will smell it, taste it, etc, and think:

Dog-Bacon!!!!!

Shot to happy dog with said treat and the last sound is the dog:

Bacon!!!!!

OK, well, I've been in Korea for five months. I have eaten entirely too much Korean bacon for it to be good for my arteries. But Since I walk into the stores here and can't read directions, have to buy all fruits in veggies in bulk 90% of the time (90% of which will go bad before I can eat it all on my own), hate too good "real" meals (and none to good of a cook to begin with, I know), and can't find the ingredients easily (if at all) in Wonju for the kind of things I made back home, I have been eating a lot of bacon and eggs (and tobasco) and BLTs. That said, I have been eating them with korean bacon.

Allow me to explain the difference. Korean bacon is wimpy. Yes, WIMPY. Small, short, skinny, thin. Wimpy. makes me laugh when I remember Dad always saying at a restaurant that he wants it crisp. He always has to specify that to the waiter or waitress, sometimes in a way that just made me cringe to be with him (love ya, Dad, but still). Dad, you will not get your wish with korean bacon unless you specify that you want it BLACK. That is how you make korean bacon crispy. You burn the heck out it. A dog would be convinced that Korean bacon is, in fact, bacon. It's been so long since I have seen real bacon, that I forgot that korean bacon is not real bacon. Well, today I went to pick up my firewire cord that I had left with Robin on my last visit, so that I can back up this perecious hard drive o' mine.

Pant, pant.....Robin brought me BACON!!! Folks, we are talkin' the real deal. Kirkland brand bacon from Costco, same as dear old Dad buys at his Costco on the west coast. If they don't have Costco in Ronin (Ronan?) MO, he probably stocks up every time he heads through Spokane. Bacon and Salsa (Do I know dad or what? Eggs, some meat that comes packaged in a roll-like pepperoni, and some sausage patties, and some computery gadget and a couple of books to fill out the carriage, but I digress). So, bacon and Stich and Bitch were the hightlights of my day. Even if all I did was a swatch. Skully is almost done, and therefore too big to cart to Seoul and back. A couple of inches on the arm and I will have to attempt the dreaded seaming.

Yes, bacon. The real deal. Time to whip up some dinner, y'all. Far be it from me to change up my routine today.

On another note, I am hoping that the Airborne cold medication that T sent me will kick this cold right outta me in the beginning stages. None of that lingering of the last cold. Nope, I want to be healthy as a horse, and right as rain when immersion camp starts on Monday.

I'm Back!

'Nuf said. Mallory's a happy girl. Many, many thanks to Robin, who has gotten kudos here before, for help, TONS of info, and just plain good company whilst in Seoul. She helped me find a place that was an authorized mac repair center there, gave me Mac tips, Mac stuff, laughed goodheartedly at my Mac ignorance, then proceeded to lower my ignorance level by as much as possible in the time allotted. Oh, and she has my blog on her Newswire RSS feed...some one has me on an RSS feed. That's cool. ;) Now, if I can just get her to walk slower.......

Oh, T, I'm going to sign up for Skype. Then I'll give you info so we can talk for free-yes, FREE. Thanks Robin.
Now I am going to cook a very late dinner (it's 22.20) and watch the latest Heroes episode. Thanks Robin.
And while I do all of this, I am in Stealth mode. Nobody's messin' with me. Thanks Robin. ;)
Tomorrow I will find a back up software to use on my new back up hard drive.....yep, you guessed it.....Thanks, Robin!....so this never, EVER happens again.

(Psst, Robin rocks!....but you can tell that already, right?)

Ok, y'all, it'll take me a while to get everything back the way it was.......but I am soo happy to be back in business.

Ciao for now.

Crap!!!!

My computer crashed! I am using a friend's. There will be no updates and no email for a while. Here's hoping my hard drive is not complete toast and that I can find an authorized mac repair shop in Yongsan. And quickly. And that I don't have to buy a new hard drive. Ah, well. crap. y'all are going to have to call me until future notice if you want to actually talk to me. And no american tv. argh. no dvd's. argh...only crappy korean tv.

It's official

If I don't worry about the time difference, it's official tomorrow. I've been blogging for a year. I am more consistent here than I am in my journal. Maybe that's bad, but it is nice to have family and friends stop by and let me know they've been checking on me. Feeling the love.......;)

Pix

Two of my new candles

Skully Lives! Actually, I've added about 9 more inches to sleeve #1 since taking the photo

Typical intersection of downtown Wonju.

For my Little Big bro Pat-this is a storefront

Average street corner-ain't it lovely?

The red sign says something pronounced like dahm-pae, but I have no idea what that means.

Bugger

I hate living in the boonies sometimes. Most of the time. I walked a ways for the bus (instead of the closest stopm for extra excercise-why can't I spell that word?), grabbed it for the express purpose to go get a mocha at Bay Wabin (Bae-wah-bean) and I got there and she was there, but closed. Brought stuff so I could hang out and write, which takes some doing for me here. It takes a while before I feel comfortable enough to hang out alone in some places here. Back home, no sweat, but here, people just don't do things on their own. Many restaurants, the minimum order is a double portion. So, some places I feel OK, others not. Not a safety thing, but a social thing. Hard when you only know so many people, and most don't want to come all the way out to your neighborhood. Grrr.

Yesterday I went downtown and bought some candles-chinese style ones with Chinese script on one and some really neat drawings on the other two. I am sure they will look really beautiful as the flame starts to get lower into the candle, backlighting the design. I'll have to send some home, for sure.

In the end, I managed to get the house cleaned up and laundry done, and I ran into Jane: she walked out of the elevator while I was waiting to get on with my clean laundry. It was kinda funny-we looked at eachother kind of suprised for a minute. Then she gives me a big hug. Her closest friend lives in my building, Je-hae, on the sixth floor. Je-hae is very nice, but her English is a lot more limited. So, Jane had to go into Family Mart to get a toothbrush and I was telling her about a funny misunderstanding on my part with the guy working at the counter. But, I say, he's a nice guy, even though we basically don't understand anything the other says. So she apparently told him in Korean that I like him. All I can say is, I hope it doesn't have the same double meaning in Korean as in English. All I need is a 19 year old Halla student thinking I've got the hots for him!......wait, maybe that is all I need...;)

I have pictures. Maybe tomorrow I will be motivated enough to show you. Just some shots of downtown. When you really look, you realize how different, small, thrown together, and often, dirty, it feels. But it is different from home, and that is part of why I left.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all of those you who check up on me here. I miss you and I hope you have a great day. I am lazy music filled morning (Jamie Cullum's All at Sea, love it, T,, thanks) and I am about to open my wrappped present from T.,...drumroll please.....yes, it sat in front of me on my desk every day for maybe 10 days and remained wrapped so I could do this TODAY......Dream Angus, by Alexander McCall Smith.....looks good, I think I will enjoy it. Thanks T! Still has a bit of that new book smell you wnated to be sure was still there ;) International post is not good for new book smells.

Later I will goto dinner at Outback with Kristy, her sister Kelly, who came from Bundang last night, and Rhonda. There may be a movie involved, but I am not sure I want to see a holiday romantic comedy....most of those just aren't that great, I find.

Anyway, y'all have a great day.

Recommendation

Thanks, T, for the Jamie Cullum CD. If y'all like like a kind of updated jazzy sound, I recommend his stuff. My favorite song so far on Twenty-something is probably the same as T's: All at Sea. I'm probably going to listen to it until I kill it. :) Fits my mood right now. Wish I was out on the water right now, wish I could leave the obligations and connections behind right now.

I also recommend Jinusean's Telephone number, if you're in the mood to check out some korean rap with English thrown in. No, I don't understand the korean, but it has a good beat. You can check it out on Youtube, but you have to bear with the stupid video that goes with it if you listen there. Basically, take the idea of rap that coems out of the US, especially the materialistic part of it, idealize it, wrap it up out of context and absorb it into another culture. America too has done this, I know. It's just interesting to see it from the other perspective. Maybe because Sweden is western, I did not see it nearly as much or as blatantly as I do here. Anyway, that's the video. Girls in sexy clothes in front of big cars and guys in weird clothes that just look like rap costumes. When against a white background, given no context, it just makes it so obvious. good beat, tho......;)

After much thought and talking to others, I have come to what I can only call my own personal conclusion that Korea is a more materialistic culture than America, and for those of you that know me well, that is saying a lot. It is in a different way, though, too.
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I got really off track with the rest of this post and edited it. I'll have to put my thoughts together in a more structured way to explain what I mean.

Knits and Snowmen

The first photo is a snowman ornament my mum sent to me. The second is a photo of me and most of my second graders. Aren't they cute? Even when they look annoyed, they are cute-that's just what kids are like. When they are annoying, as opposed to annoyed, that's another matter, but.....the third is a shot that I took in Seoul, I think that must be the headquarters for Shinhae Bank. It's about as Christmassy as things get here. Christmas is not a big deal, and the lack of commercialism is refreshing, but the lack of being able to find suitable gifts for those I want to give something to is annoying. Pardon my overuse of the word today. Anyway, I needed another potholdery thing, so I knit one. Simple boring 3X rib that I switched every 11 rows, for a total of three times. I cheated terribly on the handle so I could hang it behind the snowman.

It is nice to be on vacation, though the books for immersion camp sit over in a corner. I won't be able to ignore them entirely. But for now I shall certainly try. And I shall certainly sleep in to a shameful hour-but do so shamelessly!

Vacation

Vacation has begun. I know it will be over before I know it, but for now, I will just enjoy knowing that I can sleep in, take naps, nit keep to a schedule, etc. I will have to create a schedule for camp, but that;s really as simple as dividing the pages in the book by the number of lessons.

Whoo-hoo! Vacation. Three Glorious Weeks. Now, if only I was gong somewhere warm. I will comfort myself by remembering the money I am saving and planning something for February vacation. ;)

Random thoughts

Wow, I just realized I have been blogging for just shy of a year now. I'm getting better at posting more regularly too. I had some pix taken of me with my second graders today, so I will get those on here soon. I haven't looked at them yet, so I hope they came out OK!

Comments part 2

I think I have fixed the comments issue. Please try again so I know for sure. For some reason, I was not getting notification of the comments to be moderated. Probably a typo on my part. So, they have gone off to nowhere land, but hopefully all is well going forward. Went to Seoul today with Rhonda. It was her first trip to Seoul and her first time on a subway. She is fun to hang out with and easy to talk to. It was snowing as we left, there was a bit in Seoul, but it warmed up so it was all gone by the time we got home. It's a cold night, though, and we are supposed to get more tomorrow. It never amounts to much which suits me just fine. I had my fil in Massachussetts, especially with the huge showstorm we had while I was living in New Bedford and working at the cable company. I still remember feeling bad for the guys in the field, digging around for hours because the pedestals weren't even visible. And they had to find 'em to fix 'em. I remember calling people up when the techs called in on the radio, and telling these people, "We can't help you now. Please call us once your street has been plowed. The cable company will not plow to your house-duh (No, I didn't really say the last part;)

We took so long in the stationary store, that we saw Robin just long enough to leave Starbucks and have a beer at The Nashville. Since I hadn't spent much, I treated myself to Guiness. Mmmm, tasty.

Title Schmitle

I am just killin' time until vaca, considering my dinner options, and thinking about having a wisdom tooth removed. It's not overly troublesome, but...yeah, TMI. Cheaper here, but there is the whole Lost in Translation problem. You get used to it in many ways, then BAM, something important comes along and you REALY REALLY wish you could speak the language. The group at family mart seemd impressed (in my estimation, overly impressed) by my ability to give my cell ohone number to them in Korean. Funny stuff, I guess. They were laughing lots, but I didn't get it. But thay are cool people, so I know it wasn't mean spirited laughter. Some of it may have been laughing at themselves, since they were having a hard time communicating with me even though there were three of them and only one me.

OK, y'all where are my comments? You know that that is the only way I know that you are checking in. Come on y'all, let me feel the love.......