Personal Post: BRING IT!

First thing's first: OH MAH GOD I'VE HAD AN ARTICLE PUBLISHED ON SEOULISTIC, MY FAVORITE SEOUL-LIFE HOW-TO GUIDE!

FRONT PAGE, BABY!

I realize, my dear readers, that I was doing an absolutely shitty job of posting during June, and by shitty job I mean no job. I was going through some personal stuff and struggling to get myself enthusiastic about tasks that were becoming increasingly more mundane and disinteresting to me.

My lesson plans were becoming increasingly shitty...

I was doing a shitty job on my diet and on going to the gym consistently...

I couldn't get myself motivated for the things that I normally am totally jazzed to do...

And my romantic life... oh hell my romantic life...

Yep, everything just was kinda sucking the life out of me. Nothing felt right and I was under the sneaking suspicion that I either needed a drastic, super overwhelming change, or that I needed to just suck it up and deal with my problems like a god damn adult.

I'd like to tell you that something drastic happened to make my moods change. That I came to some groundbreaking, life-altering personal discovery, or even that I found something in the city that I love so much to bringhten my life and give me purpose again. Sadly, it wasn't as neatly packaged as all that. It was a lot of minor changes that suddenly reminded me why I'm here and why I've chosen this life, such as it is.

Here's a short list of the things that brought me out of said depression:

1) My incredible brother and his equally incredible girlfriend will be visiting in October! Putting together their itinerary and thinking of all the amazing things I'll get to show them reminded me just how much I love my family as well as how much I love the city and culture I have chosen to call home for the time being.

2) I started working out again. I had to stop for two weeks completely for medical reasons, and once you fall out of the gym habit it's super difficult to get started again. I lost a lot of muscle mass while on mandatory rest and, try as I might, my diet fell completely to hell. I tried restarting my routine several times and failed like the massive fail whale I was steadily becoming. Finally I kicked myself in the ass and went back, I've gained back my muscle mass and started shedding fat at a reasonable pace again, thank shit.

3) The adult portion of my class schedule started up again. For a month I was only teaching children... and I don't like teaching children. They are too..

And I'm too...

At least when I also have adult classes I can get my fill of proper conversation earlier in the day before having to resort to "take.out.your.BLUE.book.turn.to.page.50.FIVE.ZERO!"

4) I've been spending a good chunk of my time with some really cool people. I've also been trying to force myself to really think about whether or not my plans for the evening are actually what I want to do. Rather than listening to what people want me to do or going to the gym for a workout in which I give less than 100%, I just decide what activity will actually make me happy.

At the same time, I'm really trying to make sure this doesn't win...

5) Some things have been really improving as I strive to increase my legitimacy as a person to go to with questions about life in Korea or things to do when out and about in Seoul. I've been asked to contribute articles to Seoulistic.com (you can read my first article, about Korean alcohols, here!) Also, I was accepted to the Seoul Mates bloggers program run by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the motto I suggested ("Seoul My Soul") was chosen as one of two official mottos for the program! They even gave me a free, sweet rain jacket as a bonus!

So there we are. August is lined up to be an amazing month and all I need to do is make it through July! You know what, July, BRING IT, SUCKER!!!

2012: Why it Might Have Been the Best Year of My Life

Wow... 2012 is over and we are officially two days into 2013 so much insanity happened this year. So many ups and downs, but far more ups than any other year I have previously experienced. It's really difficult to sum it all up in a list, so I'm going to try and do it in chronological order.

Here it is, 2012, and the reasons it might have been the best year of my life:

January

I had already been living in Korea for four months and had long since decided it was the greatest decision I had ever made. I was endlessly happy and loving every second of my life. Suddenly, however, out of left field, came the shocking news that I would not have the option to stay at HyeHwa Girl's High School because of budget cuts. I had decided three weeks into the job that I was going to want to stay there another year, but then had the rug pulled out from under me. I was interviewed by the JoongAng Daily newspaper for my reaction and got to taste my 15 seconds of Waygookin fame.

Needless to say I needed to clear my head and nothing does this job as easily as a vacation. I went to Thailand with a group of my friends and had an extremely fun time. We started in Chiang Mai, then moved to Bangkok, Phuket, and Koh Phi Ph. I should really do a blog about this trip, but it feels like doing one so late after the trip would be dishonest. Anyway, it was an incredible time. I got to eat amazing food, see beautiful, ancient gilded temples, hold a monkey, and was in a Muay Thai fight. A memorable trip, to be sure.

February

Trying to take advantage of my month-long vacation straddling January and February I jetted off to Japan. I went with my friend Kelley. We had just begun really spending time together in Korea but our trip cemented our friendship as strong and important. I couldn't have asked for a better travel companion. We went to Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo. In Kyoto I found the one other city in Asia I would be happy to call home. We met up with some other friends, made some amazing new friends, and just had an incredible time.

March-April

Ok sooo not much happened in these months. Some friends of mine from Australia came to visit, which was awesome. I experienced the full force of culture shock, as I mentioned before, and had a rough time while starting to look for a new job. My long-distance relationship with a guy from back in the States was coming apart at the seams and I wasn't taking good care of myself (this is also the point where I discovered the joys of McDonald's home delivery).

One bit of excellence, however, was that I had joined a choir: the Camarata Music Company. I was a member of the large choir practicing Mendelssohn's Elijah oratorio and then was later asked to join the smaller semi-professional choir. This has been, without a doubt, one of the best decisions I've made since moving here. I pulled myself out of the depression of culture shock with music, and the music brought the next awesome thing that happened to me...

May

Yep, I found a man. He was in the choir with me. I had seen him during rehearsals, but never got the courage to talk to him (I was also nervous because a lot of the choir members didn't speak English that well and I had only seen him speaking in Korean). We finally struck up a conversation after our friend Alex told me he worked at Korea University and then told him I was looking for a job at a university. I still didn't think he was interested in me until he came right out and told me, a few weeks later, that he wanted to go on a date with me. We went on our first date on May 2nd and that was that.

May was also the month that I started blogging in earnest and it's been a real amazing experience. Mr. Y and I went on an amazing trip to Wando and Yeosu, the best trip I've taken so far in Korea. Oh yeah, May was also when I was hired at KU. Wow, May was freaking awesome!

June-July

June and July brought with them an intense amount of blogging, as well as the process of finding out what my focus in this blog was going to be (after my posts about Dating in Korea became reasonably popular). Mr. Y and I spent a lot of time going for long walks all over the city and going to baseball games. My friends visited Seoul from Japan and I had an insane blast showing them around. Things started winding down at HyeHwa Girl's High School and I started to contemplate the next chapter in my life that was to come while saying goodbye to some of the most incredible people I have ever had the good fortune to meet.

August

A LOT of stuff happened in August. I left HyeHwa Girl's High School. I visited home for the first time since moving to Korea and cherished every second of it. I moved from Suyu-dong, Gangbuk-gu to Samseon-dong, Seongbuk-gu. I started at Korea University and I was super stressed out the entire time. It was a month of transitions that all happened at within a few weeks of each other. August tested me and I think I passed with about a C+. 

September-December

These past four months have all kind of blended together. I've been rediscovering my normal in my new job, new neighborhood, and second chapter of my life in Korea. My job has been difficult at times but has been very rewarding (the most rewarding moment being the vast majority of my adult students saying they're going to ask to be in my class next semester). Paperwork is terrible and is the creation of the devil but teaching is a beautiful land full of unicorns and puppies (*resists the urge to include a Lisa Frank image*).

I gave in to my KPop demons and attended three different KPop concerts. All told I have now seen almost every KPop group I really want to see, only Big Bang seems to allude me! However, I would really like to attend a music show taping but have yet to figure out exactly how one goes about doing such a thing. Mr. Y and I went on a trip to Gyeongju, which was a lot of fun and pretty relaxing. Ph yeah, and there was Rambo! After four months of three PT sessions a week, dieting, and never using my shower in my apartment (that's how often I was in the gym) I lost a little over 11kg (25lbs) and feel pretty damn good about myself. Me being so much smaller made surprising my family for Christmas all the better!

The Camarata Chamber Choir claimed a huge chunk of my life as we had multiple concerts using a plethora of different music. It was wonderful, but exhausting. The choir's trip to Changwon was an incredible experience and I love all the members of this choir. There was also the Chorale's production of Handel's Messiah which was a very nice experience to be a part of.

In the end...

So here we are, at the beginning of a new year, and I have no idea where this year will take me. Mr. Y is beginning his master's degree in public relations at Korea University. I'm adjusting to a newer, smaller me. My amazing friend who is the reason I came to Korea in the first place is leaving in March. Many of my other very close friends appear to be planning to leave in August. Life as an expat has proven to be a life of constant adjustment, I just hope I can keep up and I hope you continue to follow me on this insane journey.

Personal Entry: AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!

You may or may not have noticed that the posts have been few and far between as of late. This is because I've been INSANELY BUSY. Just, stupid busy, and a lot of that is due to men--

This one:

Don't let the cute smile fool you, his name is Rambo and he will bring the pain!

This one:

Ryan Goessl, director of the Camarata Music Company, and the one who makes sure that all of my "free time" is spent feeling bad about not studying my music more.

These task masters on top of my usual workload from KU has made every free moment a mad dash to do this:

Must... defeat... RSS feed!! OH GOD TUMBLR!

I haven't had much time for deep contemplation on important topics to your typical expat. I've also had very little free time to have long, intelligent conversations with other expats to inspire me to write new blogs. I have a good list of topics that I'd like to explore but... ya know... brain thinkin' is HARD!!!

What I look like during roughly 70% of the free minutes I have at my desk at work.

Part of my loves being busy, but part of me is struggling with some WEIRD AND INTENSE MENTAL ISSUES!

I recently was asked what my five year plan is. If you had asked me this questions about a year ago I would have laughed at you and described something that looks pretty much like this:

Translation: Being Awesome and Loving Life

But somehow from my mouth poured the following:

My plan is to continue working at Korea University

but next Fall I will attempt to either move into a credit-teaching postion there

or get a job working for a university in Seoul that offers 

a master's degree in TESOL

obtain a master's in TESOL

and then move to either America or England

to pursue my doctorate.

What the... when the.... WHERE THE HELL DID THIS ADULT COME FROM!?

How did I age and become boring so quickly?!

So somehow I have slowed myself down. My issue is... do I want to slow down? I mean, yeah, I've made a lot of super-adult decisions in about the past 6 months, most of them thanks to SeungHyun, but how much change am I actually ready for?

On those same lines, because of my personal trainer Rambo I have dropped roughly 14 pounds in the past two months. This sounds super awesome, and it is, except that I have been the same size since middle school (I'll be completely open: 186lbs) and have LLLLOOOOONNNNGGGG since accepted my body the way it is. The thinnest I have been since middle school was 170lbs. That was during my master's program where I was living through ABSOLUTE HELL (teaching in an inner city school where both my students and colleagues hated me while being told on a regular basis by my professors that maybe I didn't have what it took to be a teacher). My mind associates large amounts of weight loss not with happiness, but with the second most difficult experience of my entire life. My brain is currently panicing and attempting to sabotage my efforts because it doesn't want to relive that and before I know it my brain is just screaming:

Soooo yeah, I don't know how well the next two months with Rambo are going to go. 

And then there's choir. We have a big festival this weekend. I'm excited, but nervous at the same time. I'll post about the weirdness that is being a choir nerd in Korea some time soon. Untile then, enjoy this picture of choir awesomeness and this video of my choir kicking some ass:

Writers Block: A Manifesto

Ugh, I don't know what to do, but I know where I want to go.

I really want to write an entry, but nothing has really inspired me lately. I am looking for ways to increase the number of people who read this. I want to help people but I want to help in so many ways that it's a little disorienting. I want people to know where to go and what to do in Korea because, no matter how many websites and blogs are devoted to the subject, there just isn't enough information out there in one place for people like me. The real issue here is that I just don't know if doing reviews is the helpful. From now on I want to consolidate review sections into singular blog posts focusing either on an area of the city or a specific activity.

The REAL thing standing in the way between me and the type of blog posts I want to do is lack of time. I've been busy lately because some of my friends are leaving, the rest of us are scattering ourselves to the Seoul winds, and I'm also in the process of looking for an apartment:

What I imagine any time anyone mentions job or apartment hunting

So I need some help, or I guess, some inspiration. What sort of things would you like to see more of? What posts have been your favorites? Seriously... come on...

Before someone realizes that I don't know what the hell I'm doing!

The Hardest Lesson I've Learned

Well, time for one negative entry about my experience here. I had to learn a tough lesson: long distance relationships are 10,000 times more difficult that you could imagine.

Before coming here I was living with the man I had been dating for just over two years. We were very happy. We had a great apartment, an awesome cat, and very few problems. However, I had my master's in education and was working as a baker. I loved being a baker, it was an incredible experience, but I could feel that something was missing in my life. Then, as you all know, I made the major decision that I needed to give myself a kick in the ass to get me started teaching again.

After I came to the decision that I was going to move to Korea the conversation with him was... difficult. There was no argument, but there was a lot of "what will we do, what does this mean for us, how will we get through this." We were both concerned but he understood that this was something I was 100% positive that I needed to do. After that we discussed how we were going to cope with the distance. We made plans to have a Skype date every week for two hours as well as plans for him to visit me in May.

But... as soon as I got here things began to fall apart. We were a very tight couple and very much in love, but life just suddenly got in the way. Communication became difficult and strained. I am not too proud to say that this was mostly my fault. Korea consumed me entirely, and I was too happy to think of the one part of me that was missing. Days would go by without us talking to each other and I wouldn't give it a second thought. I did miss him. I did love him. But I loved Korea more.

I am ashamed to say that the attentions of other men also made the situation more difficult. When you are happy you are just instantly more attractive, and man oh man am I happy. I was flirted with more than i ever have been in my life in just the first month here.

So, eventually, after allowing it to go on longer than was probably healthy, Andy and I decided to split up. We both saw it coming and it was as mutual as I think it could have been.

The lesson here was that, if you are moving away from someone, no matter who that is, your relationship is going to be strained. I'm not saying long distance relationships are impossible or that I do not recommend them. This is more of a personal lesson than one I feel you should follow. I still don't know the full conclusion of what this experience has taught me, but trust me, it's all for the better.