Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Recovery


My back pack was found with everything inside. My troubles continue. Everything is great except the mother of the special student that I teach. I got on her wrong side. Even the head of my department thinks I did nothing wrong. It's a shame, but it really makes such a great time a problem.

I am trying to find another place to stay, but I don't have a alien registration card although I am very close to getting one. I have hayfevor because everything is in bloom here. Normally, I don't have that much problem with pollen, but this is a new area with me. My English classes continue to do well. All of the students are wonderful.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Tragedy (of a sort)



When I got off from teaching my last class, I discovered I had to ride a crowded bus to another bus station and then to ride to Seoul, Korea. I lost my back pack in the trip. I should have been more mindful, but it was crowded and I was tired and exhausted. In the backpack was my Sony Reader and my journal and pens. My host imediately called the bus company and I have my fingers crossed. Luckily, I had decided against using a bag to transport my clothes and used a suitcase and put my library books in the suitcase. Everything was safely transported earlier to Seoul earlier from Daejeon that day.

When I weighed myself on the Mickey Mouse scale this morning that the host family has, I discovered that I lost another 3 k since last week. Since I ate some food late last night, I was surprised. That is about 6 lbs. I still can't believe I was convinced in the US that I could not lose weight.

I used to look forward to eating. It was a joy, but now I eat just to get substance. I like Korean food, but now I don't particularly eat to enjoy it but to get it over with. I never eat when I am not hungry. The Koreans eat more than I do and it is hard for them when I simply stop eating. They are a very small people and short. I don't know where they put it and must have high amounts of high metabolism. Of course, they eat very healthy too. I am beginning to see overweight people but it is not very common. Many people, especially women, tell me they are on diets and I look at their small bodies without an ounce of fat on them and wonder what the heck they are talking about. Are all women in all cultures convinced by commercials, men or something that they are fat? I am over-weight, but really the women who have announced that they are over weight are not.

They eat high amounts of fish and very little other kinds of meat. They eat rice at every meal which is great because I love it. I ate squid the other day and it wasn't bad. One thing they eat that I refuse to even consider and that is dog. I thought when my students told me this that it was a joke, but I saw it in a supermarket. I wondered why there were no dogs on the street.

There are some really niffy things here that I like. Everything I buy is quality merchandize and good and I probably could buy many of the things cheaper at home. There is a big difference. I have yet to see anything made in China. Everything I see is made in Korea. I have this feeling that if we did the same we would have more jobs although pay a bit more for things in the US. I think that would be a great exchange. We would have more money to buy things in stores if we had more people working making those things. Just a thought.