Third Rock From The Sun

Hello everyone

Greetings from across the world to all of you - how I hate the time the difference between us and the travelling time that it takes to get to Korea. As for Korea - ah Korea “I heart you”, even though I speak so very little Korean I really feel that this country is becoming a second home to me. I’m enjoying life here. It’s incredible to think how far I have come in a year, and how different my attitude to this country is than when I arrived.

Life continues at break neck pace over here. Jess and I are busy every weekend and have our weekends planned well into January next year. I’ve neglected uploading news of my life to my blog, and I see that I failed to mention that I went to Japan a couple of weeks ago. We took the ferry from Busan to Fukuouka on Saturday the 21^st of November, watched a Sumo contest, partied on into the night and took a return ferry on Sunday at lunch time. I should have written something at the time, and now I want to write on other topics. Anyway, Jess has posted news about the trip to Japan on her blog for those of you who are interested.

By the by, Japan was the 10^th country that I have visited! Yay, it’s a milestone. I feel fortunate to have visited so many different countries. I have had amazing opportunities that for the majority of people on this planet exist only in dreams. The next country that Jess and I would like to visit is Cambodia which we intend visiting in January next year.

We are still looking into the trans-Manchurian as an option for October 2010, and my good friend Clint has expressed serious interest which brings our little party of intrepid Moscow bound adventurers to four people.

Talking of Clint, I would like to mention that he is going to do a friend of mine a favour by couriering a camera to him. Last Sunday Jess and I went up to Seoul where we searched Yongsan electronics market for a bargain before settling on an excellent price for our friend back home. We managed to save R5000 on what would have had to be paid back at home. What a saving! What is more in between the bargaining we managed to fit in the best Thai meal I have ever eaten - Seoul really is a cosmopolitan city.

On Friday of the same week Jess and met a whole bunch of friends for dinner here in Sangju. We organised a private room at a local restaurant and all told about 30 people joined us - it was a big success.

This past Friday, last night, Jess and I went to Jeomchon, a neighbouring town, where we met friends to party it up and celebrate a birthday. They are such a nice crowd of people and keep introducing us to more people, our social circle is growing which is fantastic. There were three other South Africans at the party, which is unusual - it’s not often that we meet other South Africans, but this trend is changing rapidly. There are already far more South Africans in Korea than when we arrived a year ago.

Today we set out for Suanbo, which is in the mountains about one and a half hours north of here, to investigate the local ski resort and see whether it is open. When we travelled to Seoul last Sunday we passed through lots of snow which got us hoping for a bumper ski season. Unfortunately we have had an unusually warm week and the only snow to be seen at the ski resort was on the two ski runs that were open. We were tempted to hire skis and take part in the fun, but even the two slopes that we could see were looking tacky; and as skiing is an expensive sport we decided to be responsible and head home. All was not lost though, we managed to fit an enjoyable walk in.

Things have been going well for me, but I received some bad news this week. My main coteacher is likely to transfer to another school. When I received this news I felt as though the bottom of my world was about to fall out. Even now that I have had two full days to digest the news I am filled with a sense of dread at the thought of not having her around next year -- I am totally freaked / freaking out. My anxiety increases still further when I start wondering who is going to take her role as my main coteacher next year. I am, with no exaggeration, very very worried about how things are going to pan out for me. None of the other English teachers at my school even remotely understands my situation, how important the role of ‘main coteacher’ is to me and the significant difficulties they can cause me through simple inattentiveness.

I received the news on Thursday evening by means of email in which my main coteacher asked me for my thoughts. I stated in strong terms that I believe she would be much happier at another school. I so wanted to write a completely different reply, but I couldn’t - how could repay her kindness with ill advice? When I saw her the next morning she told me she had not slept at all on Thursday evening. She looked haggard. I didn’t tell her that I also had a sleepless night. I so hope she gets the transfer, she deserves a better work environment; and I so hope her request flatly turned down - it’s nasty to say this, but my I own set of instincts are very much at play.

My main coteacher’s departure will be a real blow to the school, she has been an unappreciated asset. So spare a thought for me. I’ve dropped all grandiose wishes from my Christmas wish list, all I want is a decent replacement.

Kelsey, our town's' "Miss Party Animal of the Year". She's always good for a laugh and an outrageous comment which leads to another laugh.

Romeo sporting his Jamexican [Jamaican Mexican] frog hat. He made it himself.

Jess and yours truly with our gracious host. His staff worked so hard that evening. We were given a discount at the end of the evening, in SA there might well have been a surcharge for serving such a large group -- Korea is unmatched when it comes to service.

Cameron, in the middle of the picture, is one of the newer westerners in our province. He lives in Jeomcheon which is twenty minutes bus ride from Sangju. I like his expression, is it bewilderment or surprise or both?

Wooseong is a friend of Jessica and myself. He taught with Jess for a brief period. Unfortunately he lives in Daegu these days.

Giovanni Romeo, our Italian American friend. He is one of the more experienced teahers, and one of the more level headed westerners I have met since coming here. He really is a fountain of knoweledge when it comes to Korea and a host of other topics.