squid and smoking

Yummy 오징어 (squid) on a stick outside of the supermarket downtown. It's only 1 yuan (12 cents) per stick!
A market in town where you can buy all kinds of used furniture, pets, bedspreads, and plants. I bought a big, beautiful kalanchoe at the plant market there for only 10 yuan and I didn't have to bargain for that price!

I took a picture because it says no smoking on the red sign, but it's an outdoor market and there's no way they're going to stop people from smoking there. I didn't get it in the picture, but there were people smoking near the sign. Even on buses that have a big no smoking sign over the driver's seat, the driver often smokes.

spring: slow, but coming

I get an e-mail from my Dad that says they're already in their last month of the spring semester. I see pictures in a weekly newsletter I get from Korea (and on Korean TV) of the spring blossoms that are out. And I feel behind. We don't have any spring blossoms yet that I have noticed, we still need to wear a coat most of the time, and we're just barely to the halfway point of our semester.

I took a walk yesterday though, because I didn't have time to go to the gym, and I noticed a few more spring-like features. The farmers who live behind our school were working. Most of them were doing some sort of preparation of their fields. One was burning down extra dry brush and two couples were plowing their fields to get ready for planting. There are no fancy tractors on these farms. They use a cow with a contraption that it pulls behind it. The contraption is a wooden plank with something sharp at intervals on the bottom. It hits the ground and breaks it up. I was watching this as I walked by and kept thinking it was going to fall apart every time it hit. There was someone in the front to lead the cow and someone in the back to hit the cow with a stick to get it to go faster. Pretty fancy, huh?

I walked past a group of cute, dirty little lambs snacking, mangy cows resting or meandering across the road, and a few dogs who watched me pass. The houses still have their red banners around the doors welcoming in the lunar new year (it was at the end of January), but the banners are faded and peeling off now. There are no more ice patches on the road or in the low places in the fields. It was cool because of the wind, but the sun was shining and it was a pleasant walk. The day I came back from (comparatively) warm Korea, it snowed here in Yanji. It was a nice, soft, long snow that lasted a few days. That was two and a half weeks ago and it's snowed a few more times since, but melted quickly.

I found Granny Smith apples today at a new store. They had American looking stickers. Do you think they were really from America? I don't know, but the one I ate this morning was so good. As I asked about the price (just over a dollar for half a kilo), the guy encouraged me to buy them. He said they were really tasty. He was right. Yay for slow signs of spring and Granny Smith apples!

i want to be...

• generous
• someone who doesn't pack so much that i have to hope for a nice lady at the ticket counter to let the overweight baggage through without a fee
• a wife
• a mom
• someone who speaks Korean confidently even if I make mistakes
• a good friend, even to those people who can't be a good friend to me
• humble
• funny
• someone who can tell when others need to talk
• someone who knows the right words to say

and a lot more...that's just a short list

rearranging

I might be going through an early mid-life crisis or something. I didn't feel the need to rearrange my room at all last semester, and even at the beginning of this semester, when others were rearranging their rooms, I thought I had mine in the best arrangement. But, in the past three weeks, I've rearranged my room at least three times. This weekend, though, I made a major move. I moved my massive wardrobe by myself. I just did it in the middle of the day on Saturday an hour or two before I had to be somewhere else. It was a mistake. My shoulder is hurting and I think the old arrangement really was the best, but I'm certainly not going to empty that thing and move it again.

I really should paint my room, because the walls are dirty in spots. When I try to wipe it clean, the paint actually comes off. But, if I were to get it painted, I'd have to move furniture again, and I don't want to do that. I don't know how much longer I'll be in this room, so I don't want to invest too much time or money into it.

The good thing about moving things around in my room often is it keeps the dust bunnies to a minimum. I have to clean the floor and reorganize every time I move something, so my place is pretty clean except for the one pile of stuff that has yet to find a drawer.

The bad thing about moving is that I didn't get any language study done over the weekend, but I do have tonight free, so I'm gonna try to get caught up! Yea for Mondays, my one free night!

thoughts on community

I'm up at the office on a Saturday, trying to get stuff done, but not exactly succeeding. The internet is being impossible slow and I'm not motivated to get a lot done in terms of grading. I've only got two sets of homework to grade before Monday, though, so things aren't looking too bad.

The "boss" of our office had some teachers over for brunch this morning. She's been having us over in groups big enough to sit around her little table. She made French toast, eggs (WITH CHEESE!), cornbread, and good coffee. It was very enjoyable.

I finished reading Blue Like Jazz the other day. I know, I'm a little behind the times. Everyone was reading that last year, but that's what happens when you live in a foreign country. It was a good read. Honest, funny thoughts about things that matter. Some of the last chapters were on being alone vs. community. He talks about how being alone is good and necessary, but can also be harmful if taken to the extreme. He talks about living so alone that he hardly ever saw people and then moving into a house with several other guys and how challenging it was, but how good it was for him too. I started thinking about my experiments with community and aloneness. Roommates in college were always a blessing and a challenge at the same time. I wouldn't do any of that differently, though, if I had to do it over again. Roommates are necessary and good.

In Korea, when we first lived there, we had a very interesting situation. It was me, three single guys, and a married couple who lived together for about 6 months. I remember at the time that we thought everything was OK. There were people who kept telling us that we had to split up fast because it was going to get bad, but we kept telling them that we were OK. It did get pretty bad at times, but there were also good things about it. We learned some submission. Some of us learned more about how to be direct and some of us learned more about how to be kinder and not say everything that came to mind. Some of us learned submission and some of us learned how to take control. We definitely learned things about others that we wouldn't have learned otherwise. I don't think I would do it over again though, if I were going to move back with a team again.

I moved into my own place after that and it was wonderful. I had two apartments on my own in Korea and I didn't get lonely but a few times, and sometimes loneliness is a necessary and good thing, too. Just before I moved to China, I lived with a Korean family, and they gave me more space than I expected. After the first few days of the girls being with me every moment they could, we all retreated into our normal routines and just saw each other when we could. I would definetly do that again, for the language practice, the insight into the culture, and the ability to save money.

Now, I'm here in China and I feel like I'm in this mix of living alone and living with others. I have my own room/apartment, but I have people over almost every day for different things and I live so close to everyone else, it's a little like being in college again. This time, I'm the teacher, but I still live in a dorm. Most of my friends live just down the hall or a short walk up some stairs or outside to the next building. I can knock on a friend's door to borrow an egg, share some bread, or chat. I'm still more living alone than with others because there's definitely no one else I can get mad at if the bathroom is nasty or the floor needs to be swept, but I think it's a good mix.

The author of this book, though, makes a great point for living with people because of the submission factor. Of having to give up certain things you think you're entitled to. I have given up the idea that I need a quiet place to sleep. Outside my room, there are often people talking, refilling their hot water bottles, or moving chairs around in the open space where there's a TV. But, really that's nothing to deal with. I think living with people again would be a good opportunity. Of course, if I had the opportunity to move in with that one special guy who is hopefully out there somewhere...that would be the best possible next move!

English funnies

I watched a Korean movie yesterday with some of my students. The English title is 100 Days With Mr. Arrogant. It's about a high school girl who has to repay damage she does to a college student's car. Through the 100 days, they fall in love, etc., etc. It was sorta cute. Afterward, I read the review on the back of the DVD case. I type it here word for word.

The Hayoung is already through is a high inside three year classes learn to
living, however and still and often and often white daydream of hair. Not
over at solid now living the male friend that live inside, Hayoung out the
cent's hand. The Hayoung harms the heat of the difficult heart head, in be
the street disorderly beat the vapor car. Her ruined male learn to living
the Hy all and new to run the car, Hyungjoon to beg the Hayoung tpensate the.
The Hayoung did not have money, then not wish the gnd sign to down owe single,
and need to be wanted the for inside yungjoon make on days for repair the.

Maybe you can understand why we have to read real English books just to keep our English at the same level it was when we came. The level of English we use can deteriorate quickly, but we have a lot of fun reading this stuff and catching our friends in their errors!

a contrast

I went to Korea on Friday morning and got back yesterday at noon. It was a great trip. I got to see a lot of friends in Korea and that was really a blessing. I went to my Korean (girl) friend's and my American (guy) friend's wedding. It was impressively beautiful and it was great to see so many people I knew there.

I was surprised at how different Korea felt. I was surprised at the availabilty of things, how nice things were, how expensive things were, and how much had changed, both in Korea and in me. It was nice to experience the conveniences. I got to eat Mexican food with real sour cream, guacamole, salsa, and cheese not only once but twice! With all the friends I got to see and all the conveniences I got to experience, I was happy to return to China. I'm not trying to paint the picture that we're in the dark ages here, but it is very different from the lives most people I know lead. I am glad to realize again, though, that this life I've chosen is good. I love the simplicity of it. I love the purposefulness of it. I love it.

As I landed in Korea and rode the bus to my friends' house, I thought about the contrast just between the arrival at the airport.

When I arrived in Korea, I was greeted by smiling, bowing airport employees, moving sidewalks, and a bathroom toilet that had a button where you could cover the toilet seat with a clean plastic cover. There were soap and paper towels at the sink. I bought my return ticket and applied for a Skypass card and the ladies spoke English well. I waited in a line for the airport bus beside well labeled signs telling me where I could go. The driver of the bus took my luggage and spoke in easily understandable Korean to greet me and ask where I was going. I sat in an airport limousine bus that had wide leather-like upholstered seats that leaned back and had leg rests. It cost about 10 bucks to get to my destination. I travel on nicely paved roads down streets with modern buildings lined up beside them.

My return to China is a little different. People push to get out of the plane as if they're not the first ones to get out they will lose some large cash prize. If I want to use the bathroom I go to a little stinky room with a hole in the floor, no toilet paper, let alone soap or paper towels. I go through a quarantine line with a video camera looking thing that takes my temperature to see if I have symptoms of the bird flu. I walk out to the parking lot through a crowd of people that crowds around the exit and only opens as you push your way through. The taxi drivers are kept to one part of the parking lot and yell and shout not only at possible customers, but also at each other as they fight for customers. I have to haggle the price down from what they ask (around 6 bucks) to what I know is closer to what other people pay (3 bucks). We travel along bumpy roads and pass people in the cold carrying loads of sticks or with carts behind old fuzzy donkeys.

But, like I already mentioned, I love it here. One question I answered a lot was "When are you moving back to Seoul?" I don't see a long term stay there in my future.