First, thank you to all of you that sent me Birthday wishes. They were much appreciated :) and this "thank you" is past due.
Goodness, its been nearly two months? And a busy two months at that . . .
Some of what's happened since I last posted . . .
1) Started and finished summer camp
2) Went to North Korea
3) Moved (just across town)
4) Went to China
5) Started fall semester
6) And some other stuff . . .
1) Summer camp was only relatively painful. In reality, it was over before I knew it and the kids did not eat me alive, despite doing the camp sans co-teacher. Young-shin left me to fend for myself while she was in Japan . . .
2) Yes, I went to North Korea. Yes, it was amazing. I'm having a really hard time explaining my experience to people. The thing is, I was only there for 12 hours. 12 hours! And it was surreal. Under-development in a way that I have never seen or experienced. Much of it was staged, but I get the feeling such is life in NoKo. The whole place is just . . . eerie. Not that I have any right to sum it up in a single word. Its a complicated place.
3) My landlord decided to be a bastard and raise my rent. Well, not exactly my "rent" . . . Koreans have a system where you pay an outrageous deposit (and I do mean outrageous!), and then don't pay rent. My deposit at the old apartment was raised from $30,000 USD to $35,000 USD (did I mention OUTRAGEOUS?!) . . . so my school could no longer afford it. This led to a week-long apartment hunt. I was warned that my new place would probably be smaller and not as nice . . . and here I am, sitting in an apartment twice the size of my old one, and twice as nice. Small blessings.
4) I just got back from 10 days in China last Sunday. Everything went a little bit wrong that trip, but I still had an amazing time. Didn't make it to the Great Wall, and actually spent some time in a Beijing hospital . . . and half the week hacking up my lungs. Ah, smog. Things were CRAZY thanks to the Olympics, but it also played a part in me meeting some really cool cats. Among these included: Mark the overly-flamboyant ticket scalper from San Fran, Julia the Ukrainian Ph.D. student and Beijing resident, Masey the ambitious and opinionated Chinese college student, and Sergei and Sergei- the Siberian dumpling connoisseurs.
Hands-down my favorite thing about travelling- the people you meet.
5) Started fall semester on Monday. I have 36 teaching hours/week this semester. Its crazy and my head hurts just thinking about it. Oh, but the kids love me and I love them . . . I'll get through it . . .
Short interlude for an announcement, before I forget:
New PICTURES! Go here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/83719566@N00/collections/
New ADDRESS! (Letters only, packages still go to the school) Here:
Dana Van De Walker
833-8, 306 ho
Top-dong, Kweonseon-gu
Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do
SOUTH KOREA 441-440
What's coming up . . .
September is going to be pretty low-key, thank goodness. July and August were a bit crazy for me, so I'm actually quite looking forward to the down time. I just did laundry today for the first time in a month. And clean laundry is a good thing. Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) is coming up at the end of this week, and I have a few days off of work. I think I may just go down south (if I can find bus/train tickets!) and be a beach bum . . .
October is still in the planning process, but I know for certain that I will be going to the Busan International Film Festival the first weekend in October. Its supposedly the largest film fest in Asia, so I'm psyched. Ever since Sundance (and before, in truth), I've been really into the whole foreign film scene . . . I'm diggin' it.
Beyond October, things get a little cloudy. But of course, as always, I'm already starting to plan my next big adventures. Right now, its looking like I will be going to Japan around Christmas and Istanbul/Turkey around Lunar New Year (end of January). But who knows? It is only September after all . . .
Well, I'm off to set up my webcam before my dad harasses me about it *again* (yeah, I know, its my own fault). Till next time . . .
Peace out,
Dana
