Christmas:
I must say I was not liking Jeju at all before we flew home to NY for Christmas. Nothing worked like it should, and every task was harder to accomplish than it should have been. I was in a dark place, and I was starting to regret our decision to do this. Apparently this is a very common state of mind to new expats, living in a new country is hard when you dont know where anything is, cant read the language, and cant even ask anyone you meet for help. I was struggling with the new normal...
I was relieved to be back in the States, where I could understand the language, read signs, and basically function as an adult without any help. We were home for 2 full weeks, one at Jessi's parents in Long Island, and one at mine on the Lake Upstate. Christmas with both sets of grandparents was great, and snuggling up with our two dogs was a much needed revival of my soul. We got some good food, and did some things we've been missing. I even got to see The Force Awakens on a big screen, as opposed to the tiny screen I saw it on in Seopgwipo.It was still awesome and I cant wait for it to be released on Blu Rey (see what I did there?)
They warned us about that when we got here. As international teachers, we are nomads. Educational mercenaries even, working for the highest bidder in the most fascinating places. Want to see the Great Wall and The Forbidden City? Go to a school in China for a few years. Got a hankerin to see the Amazon? Brazil has alot of schools. Like Chilean wine? Go work and live there. Want to see the Great Barrier Reef or the glaciers of Scandanavia? Easy, sign a contract and move. Its really pretty cool to think of the things jessi and I will get to see in the next decade, and the things we will get to show Abi. How many parents get to take their kids to see all of the seven wonders of the world? How many get to do it, while being paid, debt free? While saving for college? That's what we have the opportunity to do. It still leaves me speechless when I think about it.
When we returned to our little island in the Yellow Sea, We did not sit around. We had refreshed ourselves on the streets of America, and we were feeling like we needed to explore a bit more. We have made a real effort to find our way around Jeju-si, the main city on the island, whose main streets are choked with traffic and whose back streets are a warren of narrow, one and two way alleys. Ive made some headway with a little Korean, I can recognize about half of the alphabet now and picked up a few more words. We bought some furniture for Abi and Our rooms, so it didnt feel like a college dorm anymore. Im feeling much better.
Abi turned 3! We has a great big party in the elementary School Gym / PAC for Abi and two other kids who had similar birthdays. (They're the ones in the crowns, and here's one of my wife and daughter looking great while I look like slightly warmed -up dog shit)
. We put Just Dance Kids on the Big screen, there were balloons everywhere and all of the kids just ran and played until they just couldn't anymore. It was alot of fun.About a week after that, I went with the Middle school Boys swim team (Im the assistant coach) to another school in Seoul (Actually closer to Incheon) for our second meet of the year. It was great, and the boys did extremely well, considering most of them coudnt start off a block at the beginning of the season and only 2 were doing flipturns. They placed 3rd overall. While we were there, Jeju received the most snowfall it's had in 30 years. It was utter pandemonium, and the airport closed for several days. Needless to say I was trapped in Seoul with the swim team until the airport re-opened. Our 36 hour trip turned into a 4 day excursion. Im not quite sure why it took so long to clear a runway of 12 inches of snow... maybe they didnt have a plow, maybe they were using brooms or something to sweep the snow away, but we eventually got back, tired, but none the worse for wear. AT any rate, school was cancelled for a day, the kids made a snowman on the playground downstairs and had a grand old time, while daddy was stuck in Seoul... BTW it was beautiful in Seoul, not a flake of snow, until the day we left.....
In early February is Lunar New Year. The Koreans basically get wasted and howl at the moon for a weekend. Most things are closed, like grocery stores, museums, gov't offices and such. The aquarium was not, though, so we organized a trip over. Its supposed to be the biggest aquarium in Asia, Aqua Planet Jeju. Its right on the coast near Seong-san ilchuban, in the NE corner of the island. It was pretty cool. They used to have whale sharks, I guess, since all of the promo materials have whale sharks on them. But I guess, like most places, they could not keep them. Its a shame. They did have some species of fish Jessi and I had never seen alive before, which is tough to do, including a grouper we couldnt identify. Any help?. Abi loved it, and got to see penguins and lots of fish. The aquarium boasted a spectacular view of the tuft cone offshore and a huge wall of windows facing. It was a clear day and we had a great view
.
I think thats all for now. Its Service Learning and Leadership week at School. Jessi Left for Vietnam with most of the 9th grade class yesterday. They are going to build a school or something for an impoverished village there. Then she gets to see Halong Bay, which has been on her bucket list forever. Next door, Dominick went to Cambodia with the 8th grade, His mom, Carlina, just left for Guam with the 6th grade. Upstairs, Anna is gone with the 12 10th grade students who signed up to go to Nepal and help a school build an earthquake retaining wall to stop rock slides. They got hammered last year in the quake and really needed help. I get to stay here with the 9th graders and most or the 10th grade, who couldnt be bothered to live without wifi for a week to do something amazing. We are headed to a festival and a park and a nursing home this week. Im not at all excited about it.
We head to Cebu in the Philipines for Spring Break when jessi gets back, like, RIGHT when she gets back, same day. We got a great deal from AirBnB for a house on the ocean with a pool, for a few hundred bucks for a week. AND we get to see Alexandra Michaels. Its been a long time, and we are all really excited to see Aya again.
So I started this post in a dark place. Im not anymore. Im somewhere cool, doing amazing things I only dreamed of before. And Im doing it all with my beautiful wife and daughter who are home for me now. Home is wherever we find ourselves together. And Im happy that that is good enough for us.
See you next post, hopefully with some warm weather pics from Cebu.... whale sharks maybe????
