me
It's Day 92 and the first day of October
(I know I say this every time, but the time is flying!)
It's already pretty cold here in North Korea. My co-teacher says that we don't have much of a fall season- it goes from hot to cold very quickly without a nice gradual transition season. I hope it doesn't get too cold too quickly, because I still have a lot more exploring to do.
The universal pose of awesomeness
(also note, this photo was not taken in Hwacheon...)
To delve into my deep, philosophical side, I would say that the reason I came to Korea was to find myself.
JK JK JK
I actually am pretty sure I know where I am. I'm sitting at my desk.
Or is this not me?
Or is this just one variation of a Gabby who exists in limitless parallel dimensions?
More seriously, besides the obvious goals of teaching in Korea (inspire international understanding/education, perspective on the education system, Korean culture and language understanding) I really want to build a better base and feel like I have control of my life. College was very much: No sleep/eat all the vending machine food/never see the sun/procrastination every day/What am I doing with my life?
I want to be a healthy and happy person, so I when I am not doing teacher things, I try to do things like exercise and sleep regularly. I have little control over my diet as I basically eat whatever my host mom puts on the table and whatever is served for lunch in my school cafeteria. My host mom gives me A LOT of food - so I don't think that I will ever lose any weight, but it is all healthy food! (hopefully when I finally get a place of my own, I can control my diet as well and decrease the giant portion sizes).
Amelea and I go to a nearby gym after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It's a really nice place, it's free, and it's only about a 3 minute walk from the elementary school. Here are pictures of the gym I've stolen from Amelea without her permission:
My favorite thing about the gym is that there is this awesome view of the mountains!
I don't have much more than a half an hour or so at the gym because I have to make it back home in time for dinner. But I can get pretty sweaty if I work myself hard enough. Here, admire my very first work-out selca I took just for you:
예쁘죠?
There are also some really great bike paths along the river that I use for running on the weekend. One route I take is about 10k or 6.5 miles there and back. The first third of the path is alongside family farms of corn/peppers/rice/plants-I-don't-recognize. The second third is this fantastic narrow tunnel of plants in a forest that makes my inner tree-hugger pee in excitement. Every time I run through that part I'm like:
My running form decreases to this ^ as well. Either that or I'm hopping around, pretending to be a woodland elf...
The final third of my route is on a plank pathway on the river. It is beautiful. Check it:
When I run there aren't too many other people outside. Usually. Last Saturday was different. There was a walk-a-thon event with hundreds of people... and I didn't run into them until I turned around and started to head back. So I was trying to run one direction as hundreds of people walked in the other. And the trail in the forested area can get pretty narrow... so I stopped running and squeezed awkwardly around way too many people. At the front of the pack was all the 아줌마s and 아저씨s in their intense hiking/workout gear. One old lady shouted at me, "벌써 다 갔다왔어?" "Wow! Did you already make it there and back?" to which I said no and tried to start explaining that I am just running on my own, and I started at a different time, but she cut me off with the typical Korean response to a foreigner speaking Korean - shock and immediate immitation of what I say. Sigh. Another failed conversation...
I also saw at least 10 of my students and their families. They were all very shocked and shouted my name (since I'm usually in business casual clothing and much less sweaty/red in the face).
Another fun this about this route is the wildlife I run into. One day a decently sized snake decided to cross the trail in front of me by the farmlands part. It was all like, slither slither slither. I stopped running to marvel at how smooth they can move (and surprisingly fast, so I wanted to give it some distance). I also see lots of birds, like this one really fat one that freaked out when I came running around a corner and "flew" away (glided pretty near the ground). If my animal-obsessed child memory holds true, it was a pheasant.
Also I see lots of fun dragonflies and dead animals like mice.
Also (and this isn't just on my running route - more like every place in Hwacheon) there are giant moths EVERYWHERE. Hundreds come every night and they are all dead of the street/sidewalks by morning. They usually are piled around the streetlamps (y'know the typical moth obsession with light holds true for these giant moths as well). The scariest thing about these moths is that their fat abdobens (like the size of my pointer and middle finger together) is FULL of hundreds of tiny white eggs. The moths die and then their eggs practically explode out of their abdomens.
These are of course the same little dudes that attacked Taemin at the Chuncheon KPOP concert I went to.
The other running route I haven't explored as much, maybe only 7 or 8 kilometers along the river in the other direction. It's nice but I think I like the other way better. On this route there's also a plank pathway on the river, but then the beautiful river view gets cut out as the trail curves up the mountain to go around an army base. Most of the army base is bordered by a giant stone wall, but there is a part with a wire fence topped with rolls of barbed wire. I could see rows and row of tanks and war machines things my brother could probably name but I am clueless about. Right after the army base the path returns to the riverside and then there is a nice park. The park had lots of signs claiming that this and that was a "picture zone" and there were already several familys staking out various picturesque areas and setting up their tripods when I went running by.
I found this nice little part that stuck out over the river and it was super peaceful. The wind blew by softly, and the water from the river sort of splashed up against the base of the platform, and I spun around taking in the beautiful green scenery like:
All in all, I am really loving my new home.
I'm much healthier and have a somewhat steady life schedule. And while I had a good streak of getting 8-9 hours of sleep and not using the computer or my phone about an hour before going to bed (which really makes a difference folks) I felt much more energetic and happy more often as well.
Moral of the story my dear readers:
1. Get exercise
2. Go outside
3. Sleep
1+2+3 = Happiness
Bye bye!
~ short ribs
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