Stuff going on lately

As usually it has been an eternity since I've written here. Guess that's how I roll though. I feel like there is so much to say.
First order of business is that these past few weeks has been a hot bed for meeting new people. Meeting people in Korea is a task sometimes. I have been quite the introvert so I am quite proud of myself for talking to strangers. I just need a little boost. Leah, who became a good friend of mine since I've been here in Korea is currently on a plane back to Canada. I am sort of sad to see her go, but so happy for her to get home for a bit and out of the Korean bubble although she is going back to the Halifax bubble. But, back to the topic at hand, I have met new people. I went to a party with Leah to celebrate her birthday and return back to Canada. Met some great people. I met her sister and brother in law, as well as a few people from Bridgetown that knew some people I went to Acadia with. Also, there was a girl at the party from Mount Uniacke (in the picture) and we went to the same high school.....HC does the ROK baby. Small world eh? So that party was nice. We went to Geckos and had a couple casual drinks, good conversation and headed home.
The Sunday after, I was feeling fantastic and headed out for a walk. I toured my whole community from Junggye to Nowon to Suraksan and back. It took about two hours, but well worth. I got to walk through some Korean residential areas. Most people here live in high rises, but there are a lot of row house apartments as well. They were quite interesting to see. I went through the fish market again just because it is so different for me to see something like that.
The week was regular. This felt like my longest week in Korea. Not too sure why, but it just dragged on. I got some classes changed at work, which was somewhat of a piss off, but I'll take it. I got my co-teachers worst class and he got my best class. Makes days feel brighter that's for sure (note sarcasm). I also have been going to the sauna, which is amazing. I am addicted. I tried to go to the gym, but I really can't keep myself motivated to go and do the same thing day after day. I with becoming part of the gym going culture had more variety. I think most places do, but I don't know what my gym has to offer. I found another one, but it is 90,000W a month (about 90$) and the one I have now is 44,000W. I am gonna give it one more try....I just think I need to kick myself in the ass to go.
On Friday this week I went to the BR centre in Nowon for lunch with some people from work. I also got my aura photo taken and read. It was quite the experience. Basically what you do is put your hands on this platform that is connected to a computer and it takes a picture of you energy and she reads it. So she snaps a picture and seriously her first sentence was "You have a lot of passion, but are under a lot of stress." Of course. I guess I wear that feeling on my face. So the general read from my aura pictures were that I am stressed, I can't focus on my passions, I need to have a clearer vision of the future and that will relieve my stress. I also need to use my physical body more to balance my energy flow.
I agree with most of it and it made sense so I am going to try and listen to her suggestions and find some sort of vision, use my body more and tap into my passions and realize that passion and talent will match if you want them to and are willing to work toward that. So I am sure I will write a note in here about my future etc etc.
On the weekend I met up with Kate for coffee. Coffee turned into shopping, turned into dinner and turned into a house party then a bar. Quite the cup'a Joe! So after coffee and shopping we headed out with about 25 people to a Moroccan restaurant. It was so good! It was a buffet style restaurant for only 17,000W. I didn't get my money's worth because I have a complex about eating in front of strangers, but what I had was good! I will definitely go back to that place! After dinner we made our way to the liquor store and got out liquid machines for the night. We all loaded into taxis and headed to Paul's house. Paul is a friend of Kate's cousin.....well all the people there were friends of Kate's cousin. So we get there and he had a 2 bedroom apartment with a kitchen, livingroom and big bathroom...quite the novelty for a bunch of teachers. His apartment was nice and made me feel at home. The atmosphere of the party made me miss some parts of Halifax. It was a great time. The apartment had a roof top patio with an amazing view of Namsan Tower and a huge church and even the rest of the Yongsan area. It was just nice to stand up there and look at the view. We had good conversation. Of course the conversations led to cultural differences between Korea and Canada and then it fell into conversation between political differences between Ontario and the Maritimes....good conversation, but usuall conversation haha. It was nice to have that conversation in Korea though. It is a rarity. A lot of the people you meet and the conversations are superficial because you don't know if you'll ever see a person again. It was nice to be in a group of people who could get beyond the small talk in one evening. It was a solid party. I hope I can hang with those people again some more.
I am also planning on traveling...I am hoping for Japan in April and China and Jeju in May. I have to get a lot of stuff done though. Vaccinations, Visas, re-entry permits....I didn't know traveling was so complex. Also, I have been giving some thought on coming back to Korea. It is creeping into my head. I know people will be disappointed at home to see me leave again, but I've realized after high school and university that it is my life to control and I would do myself an injustice if I didn't do everything to the fullest. When I think of the number of people I know who have died from high school makes me even more motivated.
So all in all things in Korea are good! I am starting to make a bit of a home here now that I am over the culture shock, stomach is used to the food, and spring is near! After leaving NS and going to the other side of the world it made me realize that things are within reach so much more than people think.