lists

The good:
+ http://www.pandora.com/ - it will create an internet radio station for you based on an artist you like. So great!
+ The sauna at my gym. Seriously, love. Green tea bath, Oriental medicine bath, the super-hot sauna, the pool with the jets that beat the heck out of my back. Awesome.
+ The super-scrubby bath mitts/towels. Like fine grit sandpaper. Amazing.
+ I just got an external hard drive. Love.
+ Heated floors.
+ The computer guy fixed it so the sound works on my computer. Yay!!
+ Endless cups of green tea in the teacher's room.
+ Taking a corner and feeling confidant on the bike. It really does feel pretty amazing.
+ Overall, things are going pretty well. Nothing dramatic either one way or the other. Just life.

The Bad:
- My face is breaking out more then it ever has. Hate.
- The lady who seems to chew her gum AT me. Seriously, I don't understand how one little woman can get a piece of gum to be that loud.
- School lunch. Either I'm getting more cranky or it is getting worse.
- I have ANOTHER cold.
- There are packages I'm expecting that are taking forever to get here! I have no idea why.
- I can't figure out how to have the heat on but not on full-blast. There should be a balance between nothing and 26 celcus. Just saying.
- I am lacking motivation at the gym. Once I get there, it is okay (other than the lungs not being fully cooperative due to my cold) but it is a chore to get there.
- The classrooms and hallways in my school aren't heated, which is pretty common here. Yesterday, one of the new punishments I saw given out was teachers taking girls' socks, so they had to go barefoot. Well, with sandals, but still.

Daewonsa - this is long, but OOOH! Pictures!

After a spectacularly lousy week (made better by being able to see family at home and friends here) I went with a group of friends to a Tibetan temple in Korea. It was a lot of time on the bus, but was such a beautiful day and so exactly what I needed (both the place and the company) that it was more than worth it.

At 8:40 on Saturday morning, I grabbed a bus to Suncheon. This is of note because I have finally learned where the bus stop in Gwangyeong moved to, and when I'm going all the way to Suncheon or even to Gwangyang-Eup, this is a million times easier and less than half the cost of taking a taxi to the nearest other terminal. Anyway.

From Suncheon, I met up with Chris, Melissa, Virgina, Karen, and Arsalan, and we grabbed a bus to Boseong, which is mostly known for the green tea fields. In Boseong, we got a bus to Daewonsa, where the temple was actually located. A quick note that as I went from bus to bus, the accommodations gradually became less luxurious. I don't think gears are supposed to grind like the ones on the bus to Daewonsa did, but what do I know, right?

A picture from the bus:


And another. This kid was fascinated by us, and just kept looking from one of us to the next. His cheeks were so chubby that from the side you couldn't see his lips. Adorable.


The day was beautiful and when we got to the temple, we wandered around outside the museum for a while before going into the museum and then wandering the temple grounds. The museum talked about how Buddhist had been able to save many items from Tibet by smuggling them through China and got them out to Korea. There are more pictures on the flickr site, but here are a few.

Chris in one of the smaller temples outside the museum:


A statue outside the museum:


Details of the sand mandala. It was hard to get a good picture of the whole thing through the glass, but this shows some of the details, and you should go to Virginia's blog to see the video of it that she uploaded.:


A monkey. My mother said she wanted to see monkeys on the blog. (see what a good daughter I am?! Even if I have issues making it to the post office?)


I love this statue. It may be one of the things that connected with me the most. This is what I want to achieve - a state of peaceful contentedness.


Looking out over the area.


We were all starving at this point, but right before we left to get a late lunch, four of us:


In spring and summer, the grounds are covered in lotus blossoms. Right now, this was the last one we were able to find:



I would love to go back in the spring and summer. This may sound bad, but so often, a temple is a temple is a temple here. This one was different. And it wasn't about going in and looking at alters or any of that. It was incredibly peaceful, and more about being outside and really being able to feel the peace of this place.

...

Which was followed by the anthesis of peace at a party at a friend's place in Jungma. But that was good and necessary in it's own way. I really like having friends that are close to where I live.

Walk to work

This weekend, my family was asking me what daily things were like. I realized I hadn't posted many picture of what it actually looks like here, and while right now it is a little grey and dead-looking, I thought I would post some photos of my walk to work.


My bike. It is parked right outside the door of my apartment building.

Here's another shot:


and another:


They recently repainted my apartment complex, and it looks SO MUCH BETTER!! My complex is the one to the left, and I'm in building 2.


This is walking down the hill from my apartment. This is the market I pass everyday, and the lady who works there is really nice to me.


Inside the market. Kind of a crappy picture, but shows how there is a ton of stuff jammed into a small space.


Just past the market. I thought this tree was pretty.


At the bottom of the hill is my gym.


It was at this point that I realized if I didn't pick up the pace I'd be late for work. I'll continue the series at another time.

webcam

after much drama regarding the iSight and the fact that the order was never processed and that Korea doesn't have an overnight delivery option, I have found that a much less expensive Logitech webcam does, indeed, work with the maccam shareware.

And there was much rejoicing.

So now I have a crappy resolution option for face-to-face chat with folks.

Since I can't do a real Thanksgiving dinner and a poor approximation makes me sad, I am having the most American thing I can think of.

They had tator-tots at Home Plus. Seiously. I swear if they are kimchi flavored I will rant and rave to such a degree you would be able to hear it for miles, but they look like plain tator-tots.

If the cheese whiz didn't look kinda grey, I totally would have bought it.

photos

I'm still waiting for the iSight to arrive (grrr) but for folks who want to see pictures, my flickr account is here. I'll try to take some more of my neighborhood on the way home this evening, and will look through the pictures on my computer at home to see if there is anything else i should add.

My building was recently painted, and actually looks nice now!! Not nearly as pink and mold-speckled as it was before!

Mittens

In an attempt to distract myself, I have started to look for a good mitten pattern. It may also have something to do with the fact that my school is cold. Like, really cold. Anyway.

* An aside: A really good distraction technique is to knit complicated cables. While watching Bittorrented TV, if possible. It is almost impossible to think about anything else.

It started with seeing these at Eunny Jang's site, and falling in love with them. But as I have a cabled hat on the needles that I need to either figure out or rip out (and the pattern isn't up yet), I wanted to think about cabled mittens.

I can't find what I'm looking for right now, but I DID see these socks on Eunny's site: here which is exactly what I want, only mittens. I would probably need to take out about 1.5-2 inches due to gauge and the difference between mitten and sock diameter, which could be done by getting rid of a smaller cable pattern on either side of the main cable, I think. What I haven't started to look for yet is a good tutorial for creating a thumb gussett. I used to have the glove article by Interweave Knits which goes into thumb guessetts in detail, and have yet to attempt the mighty Google, but if anyone either knows of a cabled mitten pattern OR knows of a good on-line tutorial for thumbs, I'd appreciate it.

a list of suck

1. I just found out that last year, the teacher who had my job had to be at school every day other than what was taken as part of the vacation guaranteed by the contract. Most foreign teachers don't have to come to school when there isn't a single thing for us to do. Instead, it looks like I will have to be here if my "learning about Korean culture" excuse doesn't fly.

2. My winter break plans just fell through, and right now I'm not sure what I will be doing. At all. So the whole having to sit at my desk for 5 weeks might not matter.

3. My weekend escape to Seoul just fell through.

4. Everyone will be getting into Indiana in the next few days and I really want to be at home right now.

5. The iSight that I ordered so I would be able to video conference with folks at home hasn't arrived yet.

So overall, I'm not the best of company.

wallet, the update, again

One of my co-teachers picked up my wallet from the post office in Gwangju where it was turned in. No cash (of course) but i DID get my US driver's license back!!

Also, I have found a solution to the winter clothing acquisition problem. Men's 95 is just about perfect - the arms and torso are long enough, and it is easier to find things that are less... embelished. Also, I can get knee socks over my big American calves, which is really exciting, as there are TONS of cute knee socks.

It is a little sad that I am now built like a Korean man, but I'm not sure if it is sad for me or for them. I'm thinking both.

lists.

1.) After a weekend with a friend who ran a 10K with the Canadian flag tied around his neck like a cape and posing behind said flag after the race, I've realized that I have nothing with a US flag on it. I'd like to put a flag sticker (maybe 2-3" across or so) on my bike and probably my helmet, too, to make it more distinctive and less prone to theft. If anyone wants to help me with this, I would appreciate it, and would be happy to send something cute and Korean to you in return. Also, little things like pens/pencils with flags, university names, states, and state or US themed stickers, would be super-useful as token gifts for people who help me out with stuff. Basically, if you can find it in a Stuckey's, that is the kind of thing that would be awesome. But please no pecan rolls. Those are gross.

2.) Another day of random schedule changes. Today, because there was a volleyball tournament for the men (and one token woman/team) from the three schools in town and the police/fire fighters. Or something.

3.) I was sent home with a TON of food. Okay, maybe not a ton, but about 10 tangerines, more than a pound of tofu, and and LOT of dok (sticky rice cakes).

4.) If anyone wants dok, come on over. Seriously.

5.) There are some new folks who have just moved to Gwangyang, and it is really good for me to realize that I DO know something about functioning here. I don't know many people in town (I've been visiting friends for at least half the weekends I've been in Korea) but I know how to navigate public transportation to at least a competent degree, can read enough Hangul to figure out where I am, and know how to find what I need. All good things.

Wallet, the update

Last night, after running around and getting everything canceled and re-issued and all, I got a call from one of my co-teachers (from the lovely little school I go to on Friday).

He had called the post offices in Gwangju, and someone had dropped my wallet in the mail. He will pick it up for me on Thursday, and will give it back to me on Friday.

It was hard to tell, but it seems like all the money was gone but the cards were still in there (which would make sense, as there really is no way a Korean would be able to use a card with my name on it) and I am just crossing my fingers that my Indiana Driver's License is still there, as that was the one thing I didn't know how to go about replacing. I can get a Korean DL by having a US one (not exactly sure how to go about that, but I know it can be done) so not having it makes it far more difficult to be street legal here.

Oh, and I'm driving around my neighborhood with a fair bit of confidence. Still a bit over cautious, but getting to the point where I'm fairly functional.

Startled by efficiency

Short version:

In under 4 hours, I was able to file the police report for "losing" my wallet, get a new alien registration card, get new bank cards/activate the passbook/may be able to use my card as a debit card (WOO!), gets maps of Gwangyang (finally!), go to the hospital to get a refill of my allergy medicine and get the prescription filled.

With color and parenthetical commentary:
My co-teacher was incredibly helpful with all of this. She got the principal to let me shorten my teacher's workshop and called around to see what would need to be done. Another co-teacher drove us to the police station and to the immigration office in Jungma. At the police station, she found out that it would take far longer to get my alien card re-issued if it was "stolen" rather than "lost" and since there is no way I'm seeing it again, no way to prove it was actually stolen, and everything has been canceled, it seemed like the easiest choice. At immigration they were ready to go and all I had to do was fill out a piece of paper and give them a photo. City Hall was right next to the immigration office, and I was able to grab a couple of maps of the area (and made people very happy when I said I could read enough Korean that I didn't need one of the English maps that were in the back). We were able to walk right in at the bank, and the teller was one of the nice ladies who remember me, and said I should be able to use my cards for purchases (usually, when a foreigner opens an account they can only use the cards as ATM cards).

The hospital is what amazes me. I walked in without an appointment, waited about a minute, was able to see the doctor right away, and was out the door again with my allergy medicine prescription. Two minute wait at the pharmacy. Total time spent was less than 10 minutes. Amazing.

Race, pictures

Finish
Originally uploaded by recklesswater.

The times in this photo are deceiving, as it doesn't include the four minute headstart they made all of the foreigners and people with special needs take at the beginning.

Also, in the first minute of the race, I was smoked by a group of three people with special needs who were running hand in hand.

Does it make me a bad person that I was glad when I passed them?

group shot, after the race
Originally uploaded by recklesswater.

After the race, the big group of foreigners gathered. About half of the people in this picture are not actually Canadian, but Virginia had the flag and stood in the cold for about an hour to be our photographer/cheerleader, and so we did what she told us to do.

Today the race went really well. I smashed my previous best time (and best-ever training time) by coming in at 28:52. The last 5k race I ran was in July, and I had a 32:55 or something like that, and the best I've had on the treadmill was 30:35.

Yesterday evening a friend came over to help me cover the trip for the race, afterwhich I left for Suncheon, got on the fastest bus there EVER, and hung out with friends and it was AWESOME. I laughed really hard, ate banana bread, and found out that there are three other foreigner women who have "lost" their wallets on a bus in the somewhat recent past. Either there are a bunch of forgetful folks, or we all should be a lot more careful.

We got up this morning, and after Virginia made us an awesome breakfast - which was supplemented by Kashi Go-Lean Crunch from Carol!!! - and got together with a couple other folks who were running.

For some reason, they wanted all the foreigners at the front, and it turned out that we were grouped with the folks with handicaps or other special needs who left four minutes before the rest of the race. In thinking back, it was probably both for the photo op and to keep one of us from winning, because that kind of stuff happens here.

The weather wasn't as cold as I thought it would be, and although the wind was evil on the first half, it was sunny and beautiful. The run felt good, and I am so glad I did it! I would love to find a way to really be able to train for a longer distance in the reasonably near future. The challenge will be finding a place that isn't a treadmill to run.

dependence

Next weekend, I'll have been in Korea for 3 months.

When you move here, everyone tells you that there are certain cycles, and how the three and six month marks are usually really difficult.

I'm not unhappy being in Korea. I'm actually considering a second year here already (though I probably try to move to Suncheon, Yeosu, or Mokpo. Heck, even Jungma - the "city" nearby - would be okay). But the past couple of days have sort of thrown me for a loop. At one point this afternoon, I was laying on the floor of my living room sobbing. And it really is situations, not general unhappiness. The jerk at the gym really was not reasonable, and losing my wallet like that? I don't even know how I did it - seriously. I wasn't able to climb. Then I tried to take money out using my passbook and couldn't, and when I got to the bank in Jungma, it was closed. I was sitting in the bus station wearing my sunglasses so people couldn't see how close to the edge of tears I was, and ended up crying in the bathroom of the terminal. twice. A friend gave me a loan in order to get home this afternoon, and told me I'd be dumb to not take another to go to the race tomorrow, that I'd be able to pay him back on Monday so it's not a big deal. He'll be stopping by this evening, and I'll leave for Suncheon late, but I'm going. I hate being dependent, but so grateful for the help right now.

Okay, a couple of things that are good:
* I drove my bike to the ATM that is on the other end of town and was the most proficient I have been yet
* I have a friend nearby that I can call when I need help
* If bad things come in threes, I'm done for this round - 1) the jerk 2) the wallet 3)the bank.

I should note, I'm not writing this for pity or anything like that. When I started with this, I wanted to make sure that I was sharing the actual experience. There are times when being here is hard and ugly. Then there are little girls who want you to dance with them, bus drivers who make sure you are on the right bus, the excitement of trying new things, and middle school students who catch a dragonfly to keep it from bashing into the windows. What I mean is, this isn't always sunshine and lollypops, but it isn't horrible, either.

also,

Dear Self,
When sitting in the middle of the living room sobbing, a good question to ask oneself might be, "have you had anything other than a protein bar and junk food to eat today?" If the answer is no, you should eat. Duh.

You are sometimes teh dumb,
Me

wallet

as i was standing in line to get my ticket for the second part of my trip this morning, I realized that I had lost my walet.

They we able to get me on a bus back to Gwangyang, and a friend came over and made sure I could get home. I'll be going down to use my passbook to get some cash, have the credit card I kept at home, and am getting everything else called and all that.

What a huge pain, and I feel stupid.

ETA: I wasn't able to use my passbook. I don't have enough cash to get to and from Suncheon for the race tomorrow.

ETA (again): Because Harold is wonderful and very nice, I will be able to go to the race tomorrow. I owe him a great deal more than the money he is lending me.

confrontation

what until about 8:00 or so tonight was an awesome day ended with one of my most upsetting encounters in Korea.

From a student who gave me a package of Pepero candy (basically Pocky) to the secretary who made me a rosette pin, the day at the school I go to on Fridays was nice. Lunch was edible and identifiable, I wasn't asked to eat anything I didn't want to eat, and although my lessons were somewhat lack-luster, they didn't fall flat.

An incredibly adorable little girl named MiNa has decided that she's my friend, and when I was walking to my apartment after school, she took my hand and danced while she walked me to the door.

I used my motorcycle for transportation to the gym. This is of note because it was the first time I have used it for a purpose, as opposed to just riding around my neighborhood.

I had my best 5K time ever, and with a few tweaks, will have an awesome playlist for the run on Sunday.

I was able to do three sets of chin-up to flexed arm hang. (I have never been able to do 3 after a run) I then did a few sets of modified pull-ups and was feeling strong and pretty good about myself.

And then one of the men who is not a regular at the gym I go to came up to me while I was setting up one of the barbells for my next exercise. In broken English, he told me that I shouldn't be lifting weights, I should be stretching and running, indicating his own belly and trying to touch me. I responded with a sharp "NO" and was angry so said really quickly, "If I lift more than you, you don't get to tell me anything." I'm about 99% sure he didn't understand the actual words (it was fast enough that even the teachers who speak English very well and who are used to my speech patterns wouldn't have caught it), but got the point of "leave me the fuck alone." He backed of, still talking about me in Korean, and I did the exercise, still obviously fuming. Between sets, he starts gesturing to me about a v-shape, and mimed jumping rope, used gestures to indicate that my shoulders were too muscular, and wouldn't stop talking at me. I said NO and STOP loudly enough that it was clear the meaning, tried the "stop staring at me" phrase, the big "no" crossed arm thing, and he replied "ok, ok" but still mumbled in Korean, and for the rest of the time i was there, was talking to other men in the gym about me, as he kept looking at me and gesturing to me as he was saying it.

And no one - not even the guy who works there and thinks it is great that I am strong - said anything, even when it was obvious that I was upset and telling him to stop.

And I know it was because he is weaker than I am and it was how he was trying to reassert himself, and I know that some of the younger men really couldn't say anything to him because of the whole social order thing, but I have never wanted to hit anyone as much as I wanted to lay this dude out. And I still want to cry and scream and break things.

I have had times here when I know people disapprove of me, or stare, or say ugly things. But it has never been so blatant, so in my face and so unavoidable as it was tonight.

Rock

Yesterday, I went back to the hiking/climbing store with the climbing wall in the basement to look at climbing shoes. Again. I'll be going on a climb tomorrow and wanted to at least have my own shoes.

After an initial "no, we can't help you," I discovered the power of "I don't understand." After a little back and forth, I at least was able to try on a pair of incredibly painful shoes. There was no way these would work, but I WAS able to convince them that climbing shoes were supposed to be tight. They took me downstairs (I think to have one of the climbers tell me I was wrong) and one of the guys came up and helped me go through all the shoes they had in stock. I ended up with a pair that were far more comfortable, if a little expensive. Then they knocked off about $25. Yay!

They took me back downstairs to climb on the wall. I ended up getting a free rock climbing lesson from one of the folks in the local climbing club, and I was asked to come back on Monday. He wanted to put me on one of the intermediate walls (he said I didn't look like a beginner) but I don't have the technical knowledge or the strength to be on the walls at more of an angle. I also learned how to climb on a gym wall as opposed to regular climbing. I'm not able to use strength and dint of will to pull/push myself up, but rather have to think about handholds, footing, and crosses to work my way across, which is a lot harder.

Tomorrow I will get up wicked early to take a couple of buses to a climb in Gochang, then will take a couple of buses back to Suncheon to get ready for the 5k on Sunday, where I will be meeting friends an hopefully not embarassing myself.

Teacher field trip

Very often, things happen and I have no idea why. Kind of par for the course here, and I'm starting to (at least try) to go with it. For example, yesterday we had a strange schedule so that teachers could go on a field trip. I was invited along, and getting paid to go for a hike? No question about it.

So we pile into a bus and head out near a small town (Hadong, for folks in Korea) in a neighboring province. There were "treat" bags that contained dried squid, random strange fish... things... crackers, tangerines and persimmons (which are now my favorite fruit). Once I removed as much strange fish as possible from the fruit, it was tasty.

I had asked a co-teacher if this was a "running shoe" hike or a "hiking boot" hike, and he told me that it wasn't very steep. Well, it wasn't very LONG (only about 30 minutes to the top) but was darn near straight up at times. Like, needing to use the rope handrail at times steep, and with the fallen pine needles, a bit tricky. I ended up on my butt once on the way down, and wish I had been wearing the boots, just for more stable footing, but whatever.

After the hike, we went to a small village that had been the set of a movie based on a book that was based on a folktale (something like that, from what I've been able to gather - the information one of the teachers gave me was in Korean) and it was interesting to see the model of a traditional Korean village.

fortress
Originally uploaded by recklesswater.

This is the view from the top of the hike looking towards the mountains.

me at the fortress
Originally uploaded by recklesswater.

Me at the top.

me in the village
Originally uploaded by recklesswater.

After the hike, we visited a village that was the set of a movie (and maybe also a tv show - not 100% clear on that) and one of the people thought I should have my picture taken.

buddha
Originally uploaded by recklesswater.

This Buddha was next to the trail on the hike down, but situated in a way that I wasn't able to see it until I was back on the ground.

bike

The bike won't start.

This happened last night. I called a friend, he came over during his lunch break, it started, no problem. I feel and look stupid, but whatever, happy it works.

I just tried to start it again.

It won't start.

I'm so mad I can't see straight. I know that I'm doing it right, and it just won't fucking do what I want it to do.

DAMNIT.

ETA: Went on a hike with my school today. It was awesome. Will post about it (with pictures, because hey, that makes everything more interesting, right?) when I can do something other than fume.

ETA (again): fixed it. well, worked around it. When you kick start, you feel like a badass. Just so you know.

rocks and running

At the beginning of the week, one of the folks in the foreigner rock climbing community told me about an indoor climbing center in another part of town which is only about 6-8 miles away (but takes 45 minutes by bus). After determining that they indeed still existed, I went over on Saturday afternoon to see what the cost was per day, and what equipment I would need if I wanted to practice there.

When I got to Gwangyang-Eup, I got in a taxi and tried to tell the driver where to go. I have decent enough skills at this point that I can usually make myself understood, but obviously not yesterday. When he obviously didn't understand a word I said, I showed him the address written down (note: I am dumb and should have written in Hangul before leaving the house) and when THAT didn't work, I showed him the phone number. On which he couldn't read some of my numbers. After me showing the phone number on my fingers and using my poor Korean counting skills we still weren't able to get through to the climbing center, and after a group discussion with some of the other drivers I was told to get out of the cab. I did a little "I don't understand" and a little bit of a pout (hey, it works), and then one of the other drivers took me by the arm, walked me down the street and pointed to a store about a block away.

The shop was mostly hiking with some climbing stuff, and while he had some shoes they were all too small for me. He also has some harnesses, but they were more expensive than I would be able to find on-line WITH the shipping, so I passed. The walls were in the basesment of the shop, so while it would be worth the cost for a drop-in, I don't know if I would want to pay for a month or more. There were some overhang-things built, and some ceiling holds, but I'm still at the basic "find hand-hold, find foot-hold" point. The owner speaks some English, and when I tried to ask how much for one sessions, he told me that he will let me in the first time for free (there was a sign that seemed to indicate that it was $5 for one session that I saw on my way out) and gave me the web address for the local climbing group. I'm going to see if I can run some of the site though babelfish and get one of the teachers at my school to see what he can find in Suncheon.

Next weekend is the 5K race in Suncheon. I'm going to be so.freakin.slow. Right now I have decent enough times on the treadmill (well, decent for me) but outside without the display to tell me how fast or slow I am? I'm not so sure. I know it isn't about how fast I finish, but rather THAT I finish, but still... ugh.

annoyed

After about a year of being a Mac true believer, I have finally found something to be disappointed with.

I love my mac, and never plan to go back to PC, but I'm trying to find a webcam so that I can both talk to and see people. And for the mac, the only thing supported is the rather expensive iSight. All the regular, cheap webcams? Not supported.

Now, there are some shareware hacks out there that will let you use a USB camera. Finding one of them in Korea? Not the easiest task out there. So right now, I have a $30 Samsung webcam that only shows a black screen when I test it, and it annoys me to no end.

With that being said, anyone in Korea need a webcam? I have a brand new one (with software and USB cable) that I'll make you a deal on. Like, buy me dinner, or a box of peanut butter panda puffs, or a ball of pretty yarn, or something and it is yours.

The past couple of weeks have been BUSY. I'm looking forward to a nice boring evening at home and being able to sleep late tomorrow morning. I'm trying to find out if the rock climbing gym I've heard about in a nearby town is still open. If it is I may try to head over tomorrow afternoon, and may be going for a hike in Suncheon on Sunday.

After getting the bike back to my house, I've been a little afraid of it. I have taken it out a few times, but mostly just stopping and starting, shifting gears, getting used to starting on minor inclines/declines. Once I get going, I'm fine. I'm just lacking in confidence.

Last night it was ridiculous - there was a van that was parked in such a way that it made seeing the traffic coming down the hill impossible, so I totally psyched myself out and refused to cross the street. It didn't help that the street I wanted be on was one lane but not one way so cars kept coming at me, and it was at about the busiest time of the evening (though granted, it still isn't all that busy). I am a big baby and need to get over it. The church behind my apartment has a reasonably big parking lot, and I plan to head over there to practice this weekend, but I DO have to cross the street to get to the gas station at some point. Town is mostly empty on the weekends, so hopefully I'll be less of a chicken. I mention all of this only for those who think I'm being reckless. I am being slow and careful and cautious.

I had dinner with friends in Jungma Wednesday, and made dinner for a friend at my house last night. This is of note because it is the first time that anyone other than my co-teacher has been to my apartment. Given how far I am from everyone, that really isn't all that surprising, but it was nice to feel like I'm worth the trip. (This isn't a pity-party - I don't know where to go out around here, and there isn't a lot to do, and it IS more interesting to be in one of the other towns if people want to go out. It was just nice that someone wanted to make the trip out here, is all.)