Oh, hey, look at me living on my own!
Here I am, in my apartment. Not feeling lonely! Cause I'm not! I'm BUSY. I also have enough self-reliance to feel completely at ease here, by myself, in my apartment. In fact, I'm going to write a facebook status about it,
"Just LIVIN' THE LIFE in Gwangju! BE JEALOUS!"
Never mind. I'm deleting that. It's too self-obsessed, and I don't want to seem too self obsessed to all of my friends. My hundreds of friends. The ones I could easily call or skype or text on my smart phone or email right now. Emailing's a good idea. I should email more often. There are a lot of people I've been meaning to email, but isn't that why I started a blog...?
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Earlier today, I decided to spend the evening alone, for reasons of 'processing', 'breathing in normal rhythms', and generally 'calming the heck down'. A miserable fever on Monday morning cued me into the idea that perhaps I don't need to participate in every activity available to me right away. Last week's schedule of play practices, Korean language lessons, yoga, hiking, all day teaching and lesson planning, all night dancing and DVD bang movie marathons, and an absurd list of additional activities which filled the spare moments nearly wrecked me.
During a time when "find the post office" is still a high priority item on my To Do list, it seems reasonable to slow down and breathe. My quality of life here remains stellar, top-notch, and seriously worthy of consideration for a second year (parents, grandparents, I said I'm only considering it). Each day is wonderfully and terribly packed with things and people that I LOVE, which brings me to my theme for the next several posts:
Reasons to LOVE Life in Korea.
Note: The order is highly irrelevant.
It's rarely where you want it, and everywhere you'd never think to use it. In the photo provided, you'll first note my friends' expressions of surprise and delight. Though their happy grins actually resulted from the purchase of corndogs in the wee hours of the morning, they could just as easily be pleased by the hanging roll of toilet paper available for their post-corndog hand wiping.
I've yet to handle a roll of paper towels since I arrived two months ago, and this street vendor was located no where near a public restroom. Living in Korea has transformed my once feeble perception of toilet paper's limits. It now serves as my napkins, dusting cloths, Easter egg dyeing table coverage, and looks absolutely normal when placed on my desk at school. To think: I once confined such an obviously multi-purpose product to one dumb room in my house!
2. Childhood Freedom.
I've mentioned the high-spirited energy with which my students blaze through the school hallways, but yesterday an entirely new level of childhood freedom caught me off guard. In the midst of heavy, tedious rush hour traffic, the tiniest passenger I've ever seen swiped his card and stepped onto the bus. Standing no where near the height of my waist, it looked as if the kid had taken his first steps and was rewarded with a city bus pass.
It's doubtful I was allowed to sit in the front seat of the car in that phase of life, and this kid has the nerve to navigate the public transportation system. Bitterness aside, what altered reality did I find here? Let's revive the bitterness for a moment and ask: how often are kids in the US allowed to play on playgrounds by themselves? It's so rare to see gangs of kids in middle class neighborhoods roaming the streets because it's not safe.
In Gwangju, there are kids everywhere. I'd hate to think that they're just one bad public offender case away from what I see at home; but for now, I'm enjoying it. I like believing it's possible for them to run and play safely, under the watchful eye of all the fierce little Korean grandmothers who patrol the streets in their purple puffy coats. It's refreshing.
... more about the grandmothers later, I promise ;)
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