Sunday

Another weekend has slid by in the Land of the Morning Calm. Why do they go by so fast? I'm tired in a general weary sense and find myself thinking a lot about being back home. I feel guilty that I've missed so much of my beautiful niece's young life. She was born 3 months after left Canada and is 3 and a half years old now. I've only met her for the one month I was back home in the spring of 2004. When I hear about the tough time my brother and his wife are having with daycare and their jobs, it makes me want to get on the next plane home to look after her. I'd love to be her teacher. We'd have extended art and music classes. As it is, I send her lots of clothes. I'm the Clothes Genie.

My brother told me his brother-in-law was stopping by a couple weeks ago and bringing his son who is about the same age as Leah. Jeff said "Hey Leah, someone's coming to visit us today, guess who?" Leah's face lit up and she asked "Is it Auntie Jenn?" I got teary eyed, hearing that story. I also like that my name sounds like antigen.

We're headed toward the most difficult time if the year, for me anyway: the holiday season. What makes it even worse is that I DON'T GET ANY FRICKIN HOLIDAYS! That's not entirely true, actually. My school should be closed for a couple of days right after New Year, but then I come back to the dreaded Winter Special Classes schedule. By the time I get to that short vacation, it'll have been 3 months without a holiday. Brutal.

Those of you living in Korea already know how boned we've been getting on holidays this past while. Out of 8 possible days off between Chuseok, Xmas, New Years, and the Lunar New Year, we get 2. Again, brutal.

Ah well, it's not like I'd probably end up doing too much anyhow. Today was a beautiful cool sunny day, and I spent about a half an hour of it brushing my cat while telling him his entire life story. He seemed to fall asleep about three quarters of the way through. He looked peaceful and comfortable, so I joined him in his nap and woke up about 4 hours later. Now THAT'S a nap!

I spent over an hour making dinner tonight. It was very Korean, in that I had a rice/barley mixture with a bunch of side dishes: spinach, tamago-yaki (fluffy rolled egg made in a square pan) sauteed enoki mushrooms, seasoned bean sprouts, grilled fish, and, of course, kimchi. It was labour intensive and only slightly yummy.

Tomorrow night I'm supposed to be meeting a couple for dinner after work. They are a couple of 'gyopos' (Korean=Americans) who I've bumped into a couple times in my neighbourhood. I'm not sure how old they are, but the girl says things like "I ain't trippin' over it," so I'm gathering they're younger than I. The husband works at a church, though I'm not sure in what capacity. My co-workers are anxious for me to meet up with them and find out as much about them as I can and report back. They're terribly curious about them. Much more so than I am. At any rate, I think it will be good to speak some rapid-fire English. Should be fun, I hope.